quotations about government
The Federal Government is rendered weak to do wrong, and powerful to do right: for, as soon as it begins to go wrong, it naturally begins to be divided against itself, and the three great wheels of its machinery exhaust their momentum, or wear each other out, in their friction against each other; while, as soon as it begins to go right, all the parts work harmoniously, and exhaust their full strength on the object of their action.
WILLIAM BATCHELDER GREENE
Socialistic
As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish
The noble people will be nobly ruled, and the ignorant and corrupt ignobly.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-Help
The government's monopoly is what has allowed it to produce so bad a product for so long.
DAVID R. HENDERSON
The Joy of Freedom
Ceremonies are the first thing to be attended to in the practice of government.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
The government of a nation itself is usually found to be but the reflux of the individuals composing it. The government that is ahead of the people will be inevitably dragged down to their level, as the government that is behind them will in the long run be dragged up.
SAMUEL SMILES
Self-Help
The family is the basic cell of government: it is where we are trained to believe that we are human beings or that we are chattel, it is where we are trained to see the sex and race divisions and become callous to injustice even if it is done to ourselves, to accept as biological a full system of authoritarian government.
GLORIA STEINEM
speech, July 1981
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
RONALD REAGAN
remarks to the White House Conference on Small Business, Aug. 15, 1986
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
All government is an ugly necessity.
G. K. CHESTERTON
A Short History of England
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
Good Government is like a fruitful Season in a temperate Soil.
PATRICK CUMING
sermon preached in the Old Church of Edinburgh, December 18, 1745
Let our recent mistakes bring a resurgent commitment to the basic principles of our Nation, for we know that if we despise our own government, we have no future. We recall in special times when we have stood briefly, but magnificently, united. In those times no prize was beyond our grasp.
JIMMY CARTER
Inaugural Address, January 20, 1977
A scientific body to which had been confided the government of society would soon end by devoting itself no longer to science at all, but to quite another affair; and that affair, as in the case of all established powers, would be its own eternal perpetuation by rendering the society confided to its care ever more stupid and consequently more in need of its government and direction.
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
God and the State
I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare -- I have no use for him either.
SOPHOCLES
Antigone
We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Feb. 7, 1788
A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.
JAMES MADISON
letter to W. T. Barry, Aug. 4, 1822
In all governments, there is a perpetual intestine struggle, open or secret, between Authority and Liberty, and neither of them can ever absolutely prevail in the contest.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
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
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?