quotations about government
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
JAMES MADISON
speech at Virginia State Convention, Dec. 2, 1829
A civil servant doesn't make jokes.
EUGENE IONESCO
The Killer
All kings is mostly rapscallions.
MARK TWAIN
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
RONALD REAGAN
attributed, The Age of Turbulence
The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, Nov. 27, 1775
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.
WILLIAM BEVERIDGE
Social Insurance and Allied Services
Whether government be a good or a bad thing, it is fair that men of equal abilities and virtues should equally share in it; that they should receive the advantage of it as their right, or bear the burden of it as their duty.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
But whether we've won or lost, we need to trust that the government is acting for the (politically) correct reasons: liberal, if liberals have won; conservative, if conservatives have won; libertarian, if libertarians have won. We need to believe that the government is tracking the sort of interests it was intended to track.... When the actions of government conflict with those expectations, we will look beyond trust, for other reasons, to see whether they might explain the puzzle. Other reasons, such as money in the wrong places. When we find it--when we see that money was in the wrong place--it will affect us. It will weaken our trust in government. It will undermine our motivation to engage.
LAWRENCE LESSIG
Republic
In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws, would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
The grossest, the cruelest, the most selfish, the most easily pervertible and perverted thing in this world, is government.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword, what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society from necessity, from natural inclination, and from habit. The same creature, in his further progress, is engaged to establish political society, in order to administer justice, without which there can be no peace among them, nor safety, nor mutual intercourse. We are, therefore, to look upon all the vast apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.
MARGARET THATCHER
Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
Those who love their country never wish to rule it.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
For as in the government of states it is sometimes necessary to bridle one faction with another, so it is in the government within.
FRANCIS BACON
The Advancement of Learning
Frankly, I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values. Our families have values. But our government doesn’t.
BILL CLINTON
speech at Democratic National Convention, July 16, 1992
Government has no rights; it is a delegation from several individuals for the purpose of securing their own. It is therefore just, only so far as it exists by their consent, useful only so far as it operates to their well-being.
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
"Declaration of Rights"
Government is like a sincere alcoholic, who does not want to cause irreparable damage to his liver and yet cannot give up excessive drinking.
N. S. SAKSENA
Terrorism History and Facets
It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people can't be governed at all.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
No Country for Old Men
The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit