Representative Government Quotes

• One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

  John Stuart Mill

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  108 Copy quote

• One of the fundamental necessities in a representative government such as ours is to make certain that the men to whom the people delegate their power shall serve the people by whom they are elected, and not the special interests. I believe that every national officer, elected or appointed, should be forbidden to perform any service or receive any compensation, directly or indirectly, from interstate corporations; and a similar provision could not fail to be useful within the States.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Believe, Men, People

  Theodore Roosevelt (2004). “Letters and Speeches”

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Representative government has broken down. Our politicians represent not the people who vote for them but the commercial interests who finance their election campaigns. We have the best politicians that money can buy.

  Edward Abbey

  Government, People, Broken

  Edward Abbey (2015). “A Voice Crying in the Wilderness”, p.22, RosettaBooks

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• The natural tendency of representative government, as of modern civilisation, is towards collective mediocrity: and this tendency is increased by all reductions and extensions of the franchise, their effect being to place the principal power in the hands of classes more and more below the highest level of instruction in the community.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, Hands, Class

  John Stuart Mill (2016). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.196, John Stuart Mill

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted, it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy.

  Ronald Reagan

  Government, Democracy, Breaking Down

  United States. President (1981-1989 : Reagan), Ronald Reagan (1982). “Ronald Reagan”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The government being the peoples business, it necessarily follows that its operations should be at all times open to the public view. Publicity is therefore as essential to honest administration as freedom of speech is to representative government. Equal rights to all and special privileges to none is the maxim which should control in all departments of government.

  William Jennings Bryan

  Rights, Government, Views

  William Jennings Bryan (1914). “The Royal Art”

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• I trust that the proposed Constitution afford a genuine specimen of representative government and republican government; and that it will answer, in an eminent degree, all the beneficial purposes of society.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Government, Degrees, Purpose

  7 Copy quote

• Tyranny is the political corollary of socialism, as representative government is the political corollary of the market economy.

  Ludwig von Mises

  Government, Political, Socialism

  Ludwig Von Mises (2008). “Planning for Freedom: Let the Market System Work : a Collection of Essays and Addresses”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• I am very optimistic about - about Iraq. I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration. You're going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You're going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.

  Joe Biden

  Summer, Moving, Optimistic

  16 Copy quote

• There's a real danger in the way our representative government functions today. It functions properly only when paired with accountability.

  Edward Snowden

  Real, Government, Accountability

  Source: www.thenation.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Among a people without fellow-feeling, especially if they read and speak different languages, the united public opinion, necessary to the working of the representative government, cannot exist.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, People, Feelings

  John Stuart Mill (1861). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.296

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I have faith in the future of this promised land of America and in its institutions of representative government, but more than that, I have faith in you, the youth of America, to build even more securely on the foundations laid by the faith and devotion of your pioneer fathers.

  Harold B. Lee

  Father, Government, Land

  9 Copy quote

• The institution of representative government to us seems an essential part of democracy, but the ancients never thought of it. Its immense merit was that it enabled a large constituency to exert indirect power, and thus made possible the distribution of political responsibility throughout the great states of modern times.

  Bertrand Russell

  Responsibility, Government, Political

  Bertrand Russell (1993). “The Quotable Bertrand Russell”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have too much legislating by clamor, by tumult, by pressure. Representative government ceases when outside influence of any kind is substituted for the judgment of the representative.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Government, Too Much, Pressure

  Calvin Coolidge (2001). “The Price of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses”, p.406, The Minerva Group, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is the US government's desire for the Iraqi people to lead themselves, not for any outside power to be the leadership for Iraq in the future. There may be some transition period where the international community would have to help the Iraqi people put in place a representative government. But that is the goal, not for the United States, or any other nation, for that matter, who might be in such a coalition, if one is formed, to serve as the leader of the Iraqi nation.

  Colin Powell

  Government, Iraq, People

  Source: www.theguardian.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• What we would be committed to would be a representative government where all the Iraqi people decide who should lead their nation, and lead it in a way that keeps it together as a single nation and where all parts of the nation - Shia, Sunni and Kurds - are able to live free and in peace and believe that their interests are represented by the government.

  Colin Powell

  Believe, Government, People

  Source: www.theguardian.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• When the people are too much attached to savage independence, to be tolerant of the amount of power to which it is for their good that they should be subject, the state of society is not yet ripe for representative government.

  John Stuart Mill

  Government, People, Independence

  John Stuart Mill (1861). “Considerations on Representative Government”, p.108

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• The power of the silent filibuster to distort Senate politics is now accepted on Capitol Hill and by the press as normal and not worth mentioning. Let me be the skunk at this political garden party and say this stinks. Representative government was not designed to work this way by the Founding Fathers.

  Juan Williams

  Father, Party, Garden

  7 Copy quote

• Without freedom of the press, there can be no representative government.

  Charles Maurice de Talleyrand

  Government, Freedom Of The Press, Representatives

  56 Copy quote

• Even if they were willing to let you remove your Pride from the council's collective influence—and they won't be—there's a reason the council exists. We band together because there's strength in numbers. Because in its unperverted state, the council ensures representative government and a pooling of resources and ideas that benefits everyone." "Yes, but the operative word there is unperverted, and right now, you guys are operating under the thumb of the biggest power-pervert ever to swish his tail in the U.S. He's like Hitler with fur.

  Rachel Vincent

  Pride, Government, Ideas

  Rachel Vincent (2010). “Alpha”, p.226, MIRA

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's harder to end a war than begin one. Indeed, everything that American troops have done in Iraq -- all the fighting and all the dying, the bleeding and the building, and the training and the partnering -- all of it has led to this moment of success. Now, Iraq is not a perfect place. It has many challenges ahead. But we're leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We're building a new partnership between our nations.

  Barack Obama

  War, Fighting, Self

  Remarks by the President and First Lady on the End of the War in Iraq at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov. December 14, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Consequently, citizen legislators, rotating back to their communities after a short period of public service—considered an indispensable and routine characteristic and design of representative government at the time of the founding, and for a century thereafter—have been replaced with a professional ruling class led by governing masterminds. For the most part, they are isolated from the communities from which they hail and are consumed with the daily jockeying for position and power within their ranks. Moreover, they both pander to and lord over their constituents.

  Mark Levin

  Government, Class, Design

  12 Copy quote

• the whole flavor and quality of the American representative government turns to ashes on the tongue, if one regards that government as simply an inferior and rather second-rate sort of corporation.

  Margaret Halsey

  Government, Quality, Ashes

  Margaret Halsey (1952). “The Folks at Home”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We have now in our possession three instruments of civilization, unknown to antiquity. These are the art of printing; free representative government; and, lastly, a pure and spiritual religion, the deep fountain of generous enthusiasm, the mighty spring of bold and lofty designs, the great sanctuary of moral power.

  Edward Everett

  Spiritual, Art, Spring

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers". Book by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, 1895.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Unity is the only way in which the people of this country can overthrow the fascists, communists, capitalists, and all the other assholes who claim running a representative government is so difficult. The emphasis has been taken from the Bill of Rights and placed on the type of interpretation of the Constitution that best suits the people in power.

  William Powell

  Running, Country, Taken

  "The Anarchist Cookbook". Book by William Powell, Chapter Three: "Natural, Nonlethal, and Lethal Weapons", p. 78, 1971.

  21 Copy quote

  Show source