Bad Government Quotes - Page 2

• The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Government, Reform, Critical Moments

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2012). “The Old Regime and the French Revolution”, p.214, Courier Corporation

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• I cannot watch the city of Chicago be destroyed by petty politics and bad government.

  Harold Washington

  Government, Cities, Chicago

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• I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.

  Barack Obama

  Believe, Government, People

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• History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, History, Historical

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoirs, Correspondence, and Private Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Late President of the United States”, p.82

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• I think of Texas as the laboratory for bad government.

  Molly Ivins

  Thinking, Government, Texas

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• Millions who endure poverty and bad government can now know what they are missing. To see how the other half lives all they have to do is switch on their television sets.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Government, Missing, Television

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• A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason.

  Noah Webster

  Government, Democracy, Earth

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• Since the early days, [the church] has thrown itself violently against every effort to liberate the body and mind of man. It has been, at all times and everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, bad laws, bad social theories, bad institutions. It was, for centuries, an apologist for slavery, as it was an apologist for the divine right of kings.

  H. L. Mencken

  Kings, Men, Law

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• A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must, in practice, be a bad government.

  Joseph Story

  Government, Practice, Phrases

  Joseph Story, Edmund H. Bennett (1858). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the Un. States: With a Prelim. Review of the Constitut. History of the Colonies and States, Bef. the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.317

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• The banking collapse was caused, more than anything, by bad government policy and the total failure of bad regulation, rather than by greed.

  Nigel Farage

  Government, Greed, Banking

  "Occupy movement: critics have their say" by Nigel Farage, James Barty, Dan Hodges, www.theguardian.com. November 16, 2011.

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• Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Success, Failure, Government

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2436, Delphi Classics

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• In Southern Europe, we have, of course, very bad governments.

  Gore Vidal

  Government, Europe, Southern

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Suits obviously had helped to promote bad government and he was as guilty as anyone for wearing them so steadfastly for twenty years. Of late he had become frightened of the government for the first time in his life, the way the structure of democracy had begun debasing people rather than enlivening them in their mutual concern. The structure was no longer concerned with the purpose for which it was designed, and a small part of the cause, Nordstrom thought, was probably that all politicians and bureaucrats wore suits.

  Jim Harrison

  Government, Years, People

  Jim Harrison (2016). “Legends of the Fall”, p.109, Atlantic Books

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• The truth is in California you can't build a new manufacturing facility, and businesses are leaving in droves because of bad government policy.

  Carly Fiorina

  Government, California, Leaving

  "Fox News Sunday" with Chris Wallace, www.foxnews.com. June 13, 2010.

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• Freedoms and apprenticeships are likewise expedients of police,not of that wholesome branch of police, whose object is the maintenance of the public and private security, and which is neither costly nor vexatious; but of that sort of police which bad governments employ to preserve or extend their personal authority at any expense.

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Government, Police, Maintenance

  Jean Baptiste Say (1821). “A treatise on political economy; or, The production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. Tr. by C.R. Prinsep, with notes”, p.257

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