Government Quotes
If our democracy is to flourish, it must have criticism; if our government is to function it must have dissent.Henry Commage
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.Thomas Jefferson
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
If liberty and equality, as is thought by some are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.Aristotle, Politics
I make a fortune from criticizing the policy of the government, and then hand it over to the government in taxes to keep it going.George Bernard Shaw
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.Ronald Reagan
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
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
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
By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.Albert Camus
Government expands to absorb revenue - And then some.Tom Wicke
Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.Bertrand Russell
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
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 only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.Franklin Delano Roosevelt
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 best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.Ronald Reagan
A revolution of government is the strongest proof that can be given by a people of their virtue and good sense.John Adams, (Diary, 1786)
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.Ronald Reagan
Besides anarchy, the worst thing in this world is government.Henry Ward Beeche
There has never been a perfect government, because men have passions and if they did not have passions, there would be no need for government.Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire
Our government sprang from and was made for the people - - Not the people for the government. To them it owes an allegiance from them it must derive its courage, strength, and wisdom.Andrew Johnson
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
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.John Adams
Government cannot make us equal it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.Clarence Thomas
Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.Lenny Bruce
Democracy becomes a government of bullies tempered by editors.Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.Frank Herbert, The Dosadi Experiment
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
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
The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is besides the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech.Justice Anthony Kennedy
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
A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.George Bernard Shaw
In the frank expression of conflicting opinions lies the greatest promise of wisdom in governmental action.Louis D. Brandeis
One of these days, the people are going to demand peace of the government, and the government is going to have to give it to them.Dwight Eisenhowe
Many people consider the things which government does for them to be social progress, but they consider the things government does for others as socialism.Chief Justice Earl Warren
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
