Limiting Government Quotes

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

Thomas Jefferson

Peace, Honesty, War

First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1801

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Our legislators are not sufficiently apprized of the rightful limits of their power; that their true office is to declare and enforce only our natural rights and duties, and to take none of them from us.

Thomas Jefferson

Rights, Office, Liberty

Thomas Jefferson, Henry Augustine Washington (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence, cont”, p.3

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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.

C. S. Lewis

Wisdom, Religious, Freedom

"The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment". "God in the Dock". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1970.

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A man is no less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years.

Lysander Spooner

Freedom, Men, Years

Lysander Spooner (1973). “No Treason and a Letter to Thomas F. Bayard”

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An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

Thomas Jefferson

4th Of July, Government, Liberty

Thomas Jefferson, Richard Holland Johnston, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”

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The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Thomas Jefferson

Business, Book, Reading

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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.

James Madison

Patriotic, Men, Law

The Federalist no. 62 (1788).

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The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.

James Madison

Government, Nullification, Federalism

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1842). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution, Written in the Year 1788”, p.215

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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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Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.

Thomas Jefferson

Men, Gun, Law

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The laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are
neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Can it be supposed that
those who have the courage to violate the most sacred laws of humanity...will
respect the less important and arbitrary ones... Such laws make things worse
for the assaulted and better for the assailants, they serve rather to
encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with
greater confidence than an armed man.

Cesare Beccaria

Men, Gun, Law

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It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.

Thomas Jefferson

Religious, Truth, Freedom

Notes on the State of Virginia, query 17 (1781 - 1785)

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If we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.

Noam Chomsky

Inspirational, Relationship, Freedom

Interview with John Pilger on BBC's "The Late Show", November 25, 1992.

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Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Thomas Jefferson

Trust, Time, Democracies Have

Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.235, Cambridge University Press

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Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.

Robert Orben

Humorous, Native American, Profound

"They Said What?". Manly Daily, August 05, 2008.

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Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

George Bernard Shaw

Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists: Liberty and Equality"

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Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

Calvin Coolidge

Presidential, Liberty, Taxation

Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Winston Churchill

Funny, Trust, Witty

Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1079, RosettaBooks

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An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

Thomas Jefferson

Government, Liberty, Principles

"Notes on the State of Virginia". Book by Thomas Jefferson, Query XIII, 1781.

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No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

Mark Twain

Life, Trust, Freedom

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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; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be tomorrow.

Alexander Hamilton

Men, Law, People

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, Quentin P. Taylor, John Jay (1998). “The Essential Federalist: A New Reading of the Federalist Papers”, p.79, Rowman & Littlefield

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The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Joseph Story

Government, People, United States

Joseph Story (1851). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.296

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We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Abraham Lincoln

Freedom, Men, Democracies Have

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If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

James Madison

Inspirational, Freedom, Fear

"The Last Enemy" by Rebecca Sato, www.pbs.org. November 11, 2010.

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It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad.

James Madison

Freedom, Real, War

James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.49, University of Virginia Press

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