Government Quotes
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
During these times, when crazy people are running the government, all you can do is laugh.Bill McKenney, Speech to the Harvard Antimony Society, August 15, 2005
The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority.George Bancroft
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.Will Rogers
The teaching of politics is that the Government, which was set for protection and comfort of all good citizens, becomes the principal obstruction and nuisance with which we have to contend? The cheat and bully and malefactor we meet everywhere is the Government.Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journal, 1860
That government is best which governs least. - From Civil Disobedience.Henry David Thoreau
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.George Washington
Governments never learn. Only people learn.Milton Friedman
No government ought to be without censors & where the press is free, no one ever will.Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Washington, September 9, 1792
If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.Henry Commage
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.Alexander Hamilton
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.James Madison
Government, is the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government.MacKenzie King
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.H. L. Mencken
Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.Bertrand Russell
I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.Francis Bacon
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.Thomas Jefferson
Government never furthered any enterprise but the alacrity with which it got out of the way.Henry David Thoreau
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
All in all, I am not surprised that the people who want to unravel the social contract start with young adults. Those who are urged to feel afraid, very afraid, have both the greatest sense of independence and the most finely honed skepticism about government.Ellen Goodman
So they the Government go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all - Powerful to be impotent.Sir Winston Churchill
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.H. L. Mencken
If government could create jobs and raise children, socialism would have worked.George Gilde
What experience and history teach is this - That nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.Bertrand de Jouvenal
What government is the best That which teaches us to govern ourselves.Johann von Goethe
A little rebellion now and then... is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, 1787
The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust our own government statements. I had no idea until then that you could not rely on them.William Fullbright
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to 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
All government - - Indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act - - Is founded on compromise and barter.Edmund Burke, Speech on the Conciliation of America
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.Ansel Adams
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.Louis D. Brandeis
The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered... deeply, ... finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.George Washington, First Inaugural Address, Apr. 30, 1789
Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.Harry S Truman, August 8, 1950
The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.William Ellery Channing
A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.James Reston
