Government Quotes

• Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Peace, Military, War

  Speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington, D.C., 16 Apr. 1953

  181 Copy quote

  Show source

• Big government doesn't work! It just doesn't work!

  Lou Barletta

  Bigs, Big Government, Working It

  "The end of the GSA? House committee chair: We've seen only the 'tip of the iceberg'". "On the Record" with Greta Van Susteren, www.foxnews.com. April 17, 2012.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with each other and governments less.

  Richard Cobden

  People, Earth

  13 Copy quote

• We need a stronger national voice for social workers which leads to a change in how the profession is viewed and its ability to represent itself to other professional bodies and with central government.

  Andy Sawford

  Voice, Stronger, Needs

  "How Whitehall betrayed social workers" by Andy Sawford, www.theguardian.com. March 12, 2009.

  54 Copy quote

  Show source

• Government, which does not and did not grant us our rights, must not now seek to deny them by using fear as its justification.

  Malcolm Wallop

  Rights, Doe, Deny

  8 Copy quote

• An order of government, established by such an all-wise, powerful being, must be good and perfect, and must be calculated to promote the permanent peace, happiness, and well-being of all his subjects

  Orson Pratt

  Happiness, Wise, Powerful

  Orson Pratt (2015). “The Kingdom of God, part 1”, p.11, Latter-day Strength

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• History does not provide any example of capital accumulation brought about by a government. As far as governments invested in the construction of roads, railroads, and other useful public works, the capital needed was provided by the savings of individual citizens and borrowed by the government.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Example, Doe, Railroads

  Ludwig Von Mises (1963). “Human action: a treatise on economics”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I don't need to be looking at every failure of government, I need to be looking where failure of government needs reform.

  Darrell Issa

  Reform, Needs

  "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer, www.realclearpolitics.com. September 13, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Information technology alone cannot provide us an absolute shield against its evil twin disinformation technology. Our only protection is law, and that protection is available to us only if legitimate governments have the power to govern.

  Paul Starr

  Technology, Law, Evil

  5 Copy quote

• The point of taxation isn't that the government knows better than you how to spend your money - it's that the government, by virtue of being the government, can spend money in ways that no private citizen or group no matter how powerful, can.

  Jesse Taylor

  Powerful, Groups, Citizens

  4 Copy quote

• Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Parent, Libertarian, Constitution

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.474, Cosimo, Inc.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is dissent from government policies which defines the true Patriot

  Ron Paul

  Libertarian, Patriot, Dissent

  4 Copy quote

• It isn't a coincidence that governments everywhere want to educate children. Government education, in turn, is supposed to be evidence of the state's goodness and its concern for our well-being. The real explanation is less flattering. If the government's propaganda can take root as children grow up, those kids will be no threat to the state apparatus. They'll fasten the chains to their own ankles. H.L. Mencken once said that the state doesn't just want to make you obey. It tries to make you want to obey. And that's one thing the government schools do very well.

  Llewellyn Rockwell

  Children, Growing Up, Real

  26 Copy quote

• Socialism is the phantastic younger brother of despotism, which it wants to inherit. Socialism wants to have the fullness of state force which before only existed in despotism. ... However, it goes further than anything in the past because it aims at the formal destruction of the individual ... who ... can be used to improve communities by an expedient organ of government.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Brother, Past, Community

  29 Copy quote

• The essential psychological requirement of a free society is the willingness on the part of the individual to accept responsibility for his life. - Edith Packer
  When the government fears the people, it is liberty. When the people fear the government, it is tyranny.

  Thomas Paine

  Responsibility, People, Liberty

  12 Copy quote

• The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.

  Walter E. Williams

  Vision, Democracy, Liberty

  95 Copy quote

• Terrorists can only take my life. Only my government can take my freedom.

  Bruce Schneier

  Liberty, Terrorist

  8 Copy quote

• If people in America would get their finances together and start taking care of each other, we could put the government out of business.

  Dave Ramsey

  America, People, Together

  115 Copy quote

• A transitional government is the beginning of a transfer of sovereignty. It's a question of Iraqi security and moving forward with the political process.

  Joschka Fischer

  Moving, Political, Process

  7 Copy quote

• FREEDOM CANNOT BE LICENSED, liberties cannot be regulated and rights cannot be granted. History teaches us that when the rights and liberties of a free people have restrictions upon them, they cease to be freedoms and rights. Instead, the government becomes like a king, bestowing privileges upon the chosen few and servitude upon everyone else.

  Steve Kubby

  Kings, Rights, People

  5 Copy quote

• In Waziristan people get really upset when there are no drone attacks. Their apprehension is that the US and Pakistani government might enter in an agreement to halt the attacks.

  Pervez Hoodbhoy

  Agreement, People, Upset

  15 Copy quote

• The ultimate end is a nation that lies under the concept of the Declaration of Indepen dence. The Declaration of Independence is such an extraordinary statement - it was designed by people skeptical of government, local or national, but in particular national.

  Malcolm Wallop

  Lying, People, Independence

  9 Copy quote

• Government means always coercion and compulsion and is by necessity the opposite of liberty.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Freedom, Mean, Opposites

  Ludwig Von Mises (1990). “Economic freedom and interventionism: an anthology of articles and essays”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All government, of course, is against liberty.

  H. L. Mencken

  Liberty, Courses

  6 Copy quote

• Government has a monopoly on the legal use of force and violence.

  David D. Aitken

  Use, Libertarian, Violence

  4 Copy quote