Public Money Quotes

• Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor.

  Thomas Paine

  Political, Honor, Politics

  Thomas Paine, John P. Kaminski (2002). “Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion”, p.47, Rowman & Littlefield

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• Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Money, Carpe Diem, Government

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• Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous conscientiousness of honor. It is not the produce of riches only, but of the hard earnings of labor and poverty. It is drawn even from the bitterness of want and misery. Not a beggar passes, or perishes in the streets, whose mite is not in that mass.

  Thomas Paine

  Honor, Poverty, Bitterness

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• I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Money, Hands

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• People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

  Taylor Caldwell

  Government Welfare, People, Libertarian

  "A Pillar of Iron". Book by Taylor Caldwell, 1965.

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• The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Government, Discovery, America

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• Under our scheme of government the waste of public money is a crime against the citizen.

  Grover Cleveland

  Government, Citizens, Waste

  Grover Cleveland (1968). “Grover Cleveland, 1837-1908: Chronology, Documents, Bibliographical Aids”

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• Let us never forget this fundamental truth: the State has no source of money other than money which people earn themselves. If the State wishes to spend more it can do so only by borrowing your savings or by taxing you more. It is no good thinking that someone else will pay - that 'someone else' is you. There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money.

  Margaret Thatcher

  Thinking, People, Wish

  Margaret Thatcher (1989). “The revival of Britain: speeches on home and European affairs, 1975-1988”

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• The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.

  Chester A. Arthur

  People, Evil, Expenditures

  Chester A. Arthur's veto message to the House of Representatives, August 1, 1882.

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• I place economy among the first and most important virtues and public debt as the greatest dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Practice, People

  "What works: Common sense solutions for a stronger America" by Cal Thomas, www.foxnews.com. April 8, 2014.

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  We have the right as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.

  Davy Crockett

  Money, Giving, Charity

  "The Life of Colonel David Crockett". Book by Edward Sylvester Ellis, 1884.

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• Architects and engineers are among the most fortunate of men since they build their own monuments with public consent, public approval and often public money.

  John Prebble

  Men, Engineering, Approval

  John Prebble (1956). “Disaster at Dundee”

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• To squander a fortune in public money, billions and billions, stubbornly carrying on with a Concorde we can only sell to ourselves.

  Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber

  Carrying On, Aviation, Predictions

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• It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that of other countries the application of public money by an officer of Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe and ignominious punishment.

  Martin Van Buren

  Country, Government, Punishment

  United States. President (1837-1841 : Van Buren), Martin Van Buren (1838). “Message from the President of the United States to the Two Houses of Congress: At the Commencement of the Third Session of the Twenty-fifth Congress”, p.11

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• The truth is, the vast majority of medical care for lower income people in America is shitty. If you go to a free clinic to receive any form of care, the majority of those will be overcrowded with nurses who are tired because they have to work with so many people. We are not a country that invests public money into taking care of poor people, so we usually rely on clinics with very overburdened and underpaid staff.

  Molly Crabapple

  Country, Tired, America

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Everybody is entitled to believe. Churches have exactly the same right to exist as a football club, a trade union or a political party. But if you and I set up the Church of the Fairies of the Garden, then I don't think we should automatically be meeting the queen, be entitled to seats in the House of Lords or get public money for our fairy schools.

  A.C. Grayling

  Football, Queens, Party

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• We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Government, Civilization, America

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• Bain also asked Kansas City for a $3 million tax break. The Bain executives were taking home $36 million in borrowed funds and were asking Kansas City to forfeit $3 million in public money for police officers, roads and schools? More free stuff!

  Jennifer Granholm

  Home, School, Cities

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• In the great depression, things could only be set right by causing the idle plant to work again . . . Roosevelt . . . spent billions of public money and created a huge public debt, but by so doing he revived production and brought his country out of the depression. Businessmen, who in spite of such a sharp lesson continued to believe in old-fashioned economics, were infinitely shocked, and although Roosevelt saved them from ruin, they continued to curse him and to speak of him as 'the madman in the White House.' . . . [It's one more] striking example of inability to learn from experience.

  Bertrand Russell

  Country, Believe, White

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• The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until some one is asked to pay the bill. If we are to have a billion dollars of navy, half a billion of farm relief, etc... the people will have to furnish more revenue by paying more taxes. It is for them, through their Congress, to decide how far they wish to go.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Love, People, Navy

  New York Herald Tribune, p. 1, August 5, 1930.

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• Trying to avert foreclosures, once you can't just force the banks to do it as a condition of getting aid, means that you have to put some public money into it or you have to do other things that are politically unpopular. From the macroeconomic standpoint there is overwhelming need to help people reduce what they owe so that we don't get the foreclosures and we don't get people kicked out of their homes. On the other hand, there is great resistance politically to helping people, not all of whom would be worth recipients of the help.

  Barney Frank

  Home, Mean, Hands

  "The Political Scene: Barney's Frank Opinions". Interview with Michael Guerriero, www.newyorker.com. December 9, 2011.

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• The Executive is charged officially in the Departments under it with the disbursement of the public money, and is responsible for the faithful application of it to the purposes for which it is raised. The Legislature is the watchful guardian over the public purse. It is its duty to see that the disbursement has been honestly made.

  James Monroe

  Faithful, Purpose, Purses

  James Monroe, Ian Elliot, United States. President (1817-1825 : Monroe) (1969). “James Monroe, 1758-1831: chronology, documents, bibliographical aids”, Oceana Pubns

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• We must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not attempt to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of congress we have no right to appropriate a dollar of the public money.

  Davy Crockett

  Giving, Balance, Charity

  "The Unconstitutional Congress" by Stephen Moore, www.hoover.org. April 01, 1995.

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• All the mega corporations on the planet make their obscene profits off the labor and suffering of others, with complete disregard for the effects on the workers, environment, and future generations. We have a straightforward proposal: if they want public money, we want public control. It's that simple.

  Derrick Jensen

  Simple, Suffering Of Others, Want

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• Obama's the one who never worked a day in his life. He never earned a penny that wasn't public money. How many fund-raisers does he attend every week? How often does he play basketball and golf? I wish I had that kind of time.

  Roger Ailes

  Basketball, Golf, Play

  "Exclusive Excerpt: Roger Ailes Off Camera" by Zev Chafets, www.vanityfair.com. March 6, 2013.

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