GOVERNMENT QUOTES VI

quotations about government

The wheels of government go on, though wound up by different hands.

GEORGE BERKELEY

Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher in Seven Dialogues

Tags: George Berkeley


If you have a government of good laws and bad men, you will have a bad government. For bad men will not be bound by good laws.

ROBERT LEFEVRE

"Unlimited Government", Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, Dec. 29, 1961


Government has almost always been a barrier against which intellect has had to struggle; and society has made its chief progress by the minds of private individuals, who have outstripped their rulers, and gradually shamed them into truth and wisdom.

WILLIAM E. CHANNING

Thoughts

Tags: William E. Channing


A government is the complexion of the people--healthy as they are healthy, diseased as they are diseased.

AUSTIN O'MALLEY

Keystones of Thought

Tags: Austin O'Malley


If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816

Tags: Thomas Jefferson


All government is cruel; for nothing is so cruel as impunity.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

On the Rocks

Tags: George Bernard Shaw


A wise Government seeks to provide the opportunity through which the best of individual achievement can be obtained, while at the same time it seeks to remove such obstruction, such unfairness as springs from selfish human motives.

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT

Address at San Diego Exposition, Oct. 2, 1935

Tags: Franklin D. Roosevelt


In early times the quantity of government is much more important than its quality. What you want is a comprehensive rule binding men together, making them do much the same things, telling them what to expect of each other--fashioning them alike, and keeping them so. What this rule is does not matter so much. A good rule is better than a bad one, but any rule is better than none; while, for reasons which a jurist will appreciate, none can be very good. But to gain that rule, what may be called the impressive elements of a polity are incomparably more important than its useful elements. How to get the obedience of men is the hard problem; what you do with that obedience is less critical.

WALTER BAGEHOT

Physics and Politics

Tags: Walter Bagehot


Governments are nothing more or less than gigantic criminal conspiracies, overgrown street gangs with no claims whatsoever to legitimacy. They are funded by theft and the basis of all their operations is aggression. They're no more entitled to keep their activities secret than any other gaggle of murderers, rapists and thieves.

TOMAS L. KNAPP

"At war with the concept of secrecy itself", August 25, 2013


Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

GEORGE WASHINGTON

attributed

Tags: George Washington


A government must govern, must prescribe and enforce laws within its sphere or cease to be a government. Moreover, the individual must be independent and free within his own sphere or cease to be an individual. The fundamental question ... is now, and always will be through what adjustments, by what actions, these principles may be applied.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

speech, May 30, 1924

Tags: Calvin Coolidge


The proper function of a government is to make it easy for people to do good and difficult for them to do evil.

JIMMY CARTER

Why Not the Best?

Tags: Jimmy Carter


While legislation can stimulate and encourage, the real creative ability which builds up and develops the country, and in general makes human existence more tolerable and life more complete, has to be supplied by the genius of the people themselves. The Government can supply no substitute for enterprise.

CALVIN COOLIDGE

speech, Jul. 4, 1924

Tags: Calvin Coolidge


That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Tags: Thomas Jefferson


Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

The World As I See It

Tags: Albert Einstein


Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.

JOHN BASIL BARNHILL

"Indictment of Socialism No. 3", Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism


Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society. Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?

ST. AUGUSTINE

City of God

Tags: St. Augustine


Good Government is like a fruitful Season in a temperate Soil.

PATRICK CUMING

sermon preached in the Old Church of Edinburgh, December 18, 1745


The Government of Man should be the Monarchy of Reason; it is too often a Democracy of Passions, or an Anarchy of Humours.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

Tags: Benjamin Whichcote


When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are something to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honors are something to be ashamed of.

CONFUCIUS

The Wisdom of Confucius

Tags: Confucius