Limiting Government Quotes - Page 5

• Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

  C. S. Lewis

  Peace, War, Government

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.45, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

  James Madison

  Truth, Men, Presidential

  James Madison's notes on the debates in the Federal Convention, avalon.law.yale.edu. July 11, 1787.

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• What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

  James Madison

  Nature, Patriotic, Angel

  1788 The Federalist, Jan.

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• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.24, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• I am just absolutely convinced that the best formula for giving us peace and preserving the American way of life is freedom, limited government, and minding our own business overseas.

  Ron Paul

  Peace, Government, Giving

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• The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

  James Madison

  Government, Hands, Independent Judiciary

  The Federalist no. 47 (1788)

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• The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of 'liberalism,' they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.

  Norman Thomas

  Freedom, Names, Usa

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one.

  James Madison

  Government, Done, Constitution

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.31, University of Virginia Press

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• Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Law Courts, Government, Libertarian Party

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Peace, Freedom, War

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

  Henry Ford

  Money, Morning, Believe

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• You do not examine legislation in the light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in the light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered.

  Lyndon B. Johnson

  Inspirational, Light, Government

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• Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

  Noah Webster

  Army, Gun, Power

  Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

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• Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.

  Thomas Paine

  Wisdom, Country, Mean

  Thomas Paine (2017). “Common Sense & The Rights of Man - The Voice of the American Revolution: Words of a Visionary That Sparked the Revolution and Remained the Core of American Democratic Principles”, p.4, Madison & Adams Press

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• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Libertarian Party, Liberty, Politics

  Martin D. Tullai, Abraham Lincoln (1998). “Speaking of Abraham Lincoln”

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• We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.

  Benjamin Harrison

  War, Presidential, Police

  Benjamin Harrison, United States. President (1889-1893 : Harrison) (1969). “Benjamin Harrison, 1833-1901: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”

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• 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

  Tyrants, Libertarian Party, Democracies Have

  C. S. Lewis (2014). “God in the Dock”, p.324, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

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• Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

  Albert Einstein

  Love, Life, God

  Albert Einstein (1949). “The World as I See it”, Citadel Press

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• Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Gun, British Rule In India

  Mahatma Gandhi, General Press (2014). “My Experiments with Truth: An Autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi”, p.681, GENERAL PRESS

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• Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.

  James Bovard

  Humor, Two, Democracies Have

  James Bovard (2016). “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty”, p.333, St. Martin's Griffin

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• He who controls the past controls the future.

  Laozi

  Future, Past, Political Language

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• Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought.

  Graham Greene

  Political, Doubt, Atheism

  "Freedom of Thought". Speech accepting the Jerusalem Prize, archive.spectator.co.uk. April 06, 1981.

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• In the United States we have, in effect, two governments ... We have the duly constituted Government ... Then we have an independent, uncontrolled and uncoordinated government in the Federal Reserve System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.

  Wright Patman

  Independent, Government, Two

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• The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Yield

  Thomas Jefferson (2015). “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, p.5, Lulu.com

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• There is no "slippery slope" toward loss of liberty, only a long staircase where each step down must first be tolerated by the American people and their leaders.

  Alan K. Simpson

  Freedom, Loss, Long

  The New York Times, September 26, 1982.

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