Government Quotes
We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. We know that oppressive governments support terror, while free governments fight the terrorists in their midst. We know that free peoples embrace progress and life, instead of becoming the recruits for murderous ideologies.George W. Bush, Speech to UN General Assembly, September 21, 2004
Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.Adlai E. Jr. Stevenson
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 government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.Milton Friedman
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
They who seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers... call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order.Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.Gerald R. Ford, on becoming President, Aug. 9, 1974
There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.Bertrand Russell
Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.Gilbert Keith Chesterton
If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.Thomas Jefferson
The Second Amendment reveals a profound principle of American government - The principle of civilian ascendency over the military.William Orville Douglas
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.Thomas Paine, in his "The Rights of Man" (1791)
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
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.George Bernard Shaw
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
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
It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.Sir Winston Churchill
Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master.George Washington
Government cannot make us equal it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.Clarence Thomas
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
The one bonus of not lifting the ban on gays in the military is that the next time the government mandates a draft, we can all declare we are homosexual instead of running off to Canada.Lorne Bloch
When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.Harry S Truman
Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.George Washington
No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.Edward Abbey
I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.John Updike
All governments eventually lean further and further towards aristocracy.Frank Herbert, Dune
The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.Lord William Beveridge
Of all the inventions that have helped to unify China perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. Its ability to annihilate distance has been in direct proportion to its achievements in assisting to annihilate suspicion and misunderstanding among provincial officials far removed from one another or from the officials at the seat of government.Madame Chiang
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
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 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
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
It is the duty of every patriot to protect his country from its government.Thomas Paine
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it always to be kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
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
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.Louis D. Brandeis
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.Ronald Reagan
