Government Quotes
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.Sir Winston Churchill
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want - And their kids pay for it.Richard Lamm
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.Gerald R. Ford
I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.Dwight D Eisenhowe
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.Ronald Reagan
The less government we have the better.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Government expands to absorb revenue - And then some.Tom Wicke
The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government they have only a talent for getting and holding office.H. L. Mencken
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, Speech on 21 June 1788 urging ratification of the Constitution in New York.
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
Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.Henry David Thoreau
Every culture has its distinctive and normal system of government. Yours is democracy, moderated by corruption. Ours is totalitarianism, moderated by assassination.Unknown Russian
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
The incestuous relationship between government and big business thrives in the dark.Jack Anderson
Governments never learn. Only people learn.Milton Friedman
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
Asking to meet with Italian businessmen instead of government officials. I want to talk to these people because they stay in power and you change all the time.Nikita Khrushchev
If men were angels, no government would be necessary.James Madison
A great writer is, so to speak, a second government in his country. And for that reason no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones.Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.Albert Camus
When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.Herbert Clark Hoove
Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.Gerald R. Ford, on becoming President, Aug. 9, 1974
A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.James Reston
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
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 Humphrey
It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment.Ansel Adams
Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government.Richard Milhous Nixon
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
The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.Henry David Thoreau
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
The function of government ought to be: make sure you have good water to drink, somebody picking up the garbage, good roads to drive on, enough electricity to turn your light bulbs and your record player on, and whatever smaller amounts of regulatory assistance is necessary to make this society work.Frank Zappa, Interview with this submitter, New York City, 5/08/1980
He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.Confucius, The Confucian Analects
Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.Harry S Truman, Lecture at Columbia University, 28 Apr. 1959
The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - No ideals.Golda Mei
If guns are outlawed, only the government will have guns. Only the police, the secret police, the military, the hired servants of our rulers. Only the government - - And a few outlaws. I intend to be among the outlaws.Edward Abbey
It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.Thomas Paine
