Government Quotes
Manufacturing and commercial monopolies owe their origin not to a tendency imminent in a capitalist economy but to governmental interventionist policy directed against free trade and laissez faire.Ludwig Mises
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg.Thomas Jefferson
Religion... is the basis and foundation of government... before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe.James Madison
Democracy is a form of government in which it is permitted to wonder aloud what the country could do under first - Class management.Senator Soape
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the governing of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address
Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.Thomas Jefferson
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.Aristotle
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.Henry David Thoreau
Ed, we just witnessed a peaceful transition in government. Do you realize how miraculous that is... Today, tiny Cicely, Alaska, stood up and put another W in the win category for democracy.Jeff Melvoin
There is no legitimacy on earth but in a government which is the choice of the nation.Joseph Bonaparte
It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.Hubert H. Humphrey
I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.Dwight D. Eisenhowe
If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism if our government is to function it must have dissent.Henry Commage
Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from birth what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government to do good.Daniel Patrick Moynihan
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.Thomas Jefferson
When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.Herbert Clark Hoove
History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation, Jan 16, 1984
It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.Thomas Paine
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, 1781 - 82
It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny their figure deformity.Alexander Hamilton
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
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.Thomas Jefferson
We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.John Adams
A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.Barry Goldwate
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.John Adams
In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.Ambrose Bierce
The 1976 Bicentennial is not going to be invented in Washington, printed in triplicate by the Government Printing Office and mailed to you by the United States Postal Service.Richard Milhous Nixon
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.James Abram Garfield
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.Louis D. Brandeis
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury.Alexander Tyle
I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government but civilization itself.Gerald R. Ford, Inaugural Address, 9 August 1974
Its embarrassing, you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on a Best Sellers List.Abbie Hoffman, In response to the success of his book; Steal this Book
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.William H. Borah
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptable. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted.Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse Dune, Missionaria Protectiva
Judge of thine improvement, not by what thou speakest or writest, but by the firmness of thy mind, and the government of thy passions and affections.Thomas Fulle
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.Alexander Hamilton
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.Sir Winston Churchill
