Government Quotes - Page 3

• I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Thinking, Liberty

  Thomas Jefferson (1977). “The Portable Thomas Jefferson”, p.461, Penguin

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• In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

  Saint Augustine

  Peace, Justice, Absence

  66 Copy quote

• They have the guns and therefore we are for peace and for reformation through the ballot. When we have the guns then it will be through the bullet.

  Saul Alinsky

  Peace, Gun, Weapons

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.37, Vintage

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• A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

  Edward R. Murrow

  Sheep, Political, Liberty

  224 Copy quote

• If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin.

  Samuel Adams

  Country, Patriotic, Men

  424 Copy quote

• Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

  Frederic Bastiat

  Inspirational, Humor, Libertarian Party

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• I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

  H. L. Mencken

  Life, Wise, Believe

  27 Copy quote

• State are not made, nor patched; they grow;
  Grow slow through centuries of pain,
  And grow correctly in the main;
  But only grow by certain laws,
  Of certain bits in certain jaws.

  John Masefield

  Pain, Law, Century

  John Masefield (1925). “Poems by John Masefield”

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• The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

  H. L. Mencken

  Usa, Literature, Limits

  "The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations". Book edited by Antony Jay, 1996.

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• Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Oil, President, Compromise

  Remarks during hearings before the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, November 15, 1973.

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• No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Religious, Philosophical, Character

  "The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist". Book by Richard Feynman, 1999.

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• 

  The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Freedom, Independent

  Sir Winston Churchill (1965). “The Churchill Wit”

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  It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

  Thomas Sowell

  Business, Stupid, Hands

  "Wake Up, Parents!". Column at Jewish World Review, www.jewishworldreview.com. August 18, 2000.

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• An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

  Confucius

  Philosophical, Beer, Profound

  87 Copy quote

• That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Men, Political, Democracy

  Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1853). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.38

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• Democracy is an abuse of statistics.

  Jorge Luis Borges

  Abuse, Democracy, Statistics

  15 Copy quote

• There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

  'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

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• Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

  Ronald Reagan

  Business, Presidential, Political

  Ronald Reagan (2004). “Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches”, p.419, Simon and Schuster

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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, People, Political

  28 Copy quote

• The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

  Baron de Montesquieu

  Honesty, Integrity, War

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• No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable, without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

  James Madison

  Order, Long, Individual

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (2003). “The Federalist: With Letters of Brutus”, p.305, Cambridge University Press

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• It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Libertarian Party, Important, Liberty

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century”, Images from the Past Incorporated

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• A civil servant is sometimes like a broken cannon - it won't work and you can't fire it.

  George S. Patton

  Fire, Broken, Sometimes

  81 Copy quote

• The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

  George Washington

  Patience, Inspiration, 4th Of July

  33 Copy quote

• In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

  James Madison

  Power, Men, Liberty

  The Federalist no. 51 (1788)

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