Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.
We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views.
Government and politics isn't like a reality TV show. It's not about voting the bad guys out of the house. You know, it's about what do we need to take our country or our state or our city forward? And people, frankly, would be well advised to really get back into understanding politics.
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.
You can study government and politics in school, but the best way to really understand the process is to volunteer your time.
People who have been in and around government and politics for their entire lives may no longer be able to see the truth. Our government must be fundamentally reformed. The system has to be changed. Our politics can no longer tinker on the edges.
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