1000 Best Government Quotes

I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal. John Maynard Keynes

As far as your personal goals are and what you actually want to do with your life, it should never have to do with the government. You should never depend on the government for your retirement, your financial security, for anything. If you do, you're screwed. Drew Carey

A man's natural rights are his own, against the whole world; and any infringement of them is equally a crime, whether committed by one man, or by millions; whether committed by one man, calling himself a robber, (or by any other name indicating his true character,) or by millions, calling themselves a government. Lysander Spooner

Our government is concerned about the future. Everything we do today is not aimed at tomorrow but rather at a future that preserves the living conditions of Brazilians. Michel Temer

I have embraced crying mothers who have lost their children because our politicians put their personal agendas before the national good. I have no patience for injustice, no tolerance for government incompetence, no sympathy for leaders who fail their citizens. Donald Trump

The problem with leaderless uprisings taking over is that you don't always know what you get at the other end. If you are not careful you could replace a bad government with one much worse! Chinua Achebe

There is a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience. Stokely Carmichael

The Obama administration came into Utah and said, 'We're not going to listen to what the U.S. Supreme Court said. 'We, the federal government, are going to recognize marriages in the state of Utah and Utah state law explicitly does not recognize as marriage,' and that was really, in my view, an abuse of power. Ted Cruz

Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down. Robert Orben

You know, I have found a new way to get high and stay spaced out for hours on end, and the government can't stop me... It's called senility. Robert Anton Wilson

The government of Israel doesn't like the kinds of things I say, which puts them into the same category as every other government in the world. Noam Chomsky

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. Harry S Truman

The collusion of big business, big labor, and big government threaten the spirit of small business that makes America great. Foster Friess

We need a wireless mobile device ecosystem that mirrors the PC/Internet ecosystem, one where the consumers' purchase of network capacity is separate from their purchase of the hardware and software they use on that network. It will take government action, or some disruptive technology or business innovation, to get us there. Walt Mossberg

If there is an authoritarian structure at St. Hill it has been brought into being by the government itself. St. Hill is trying to correct itself. It doesn't know what it's trying to correct because nobody has told it what to correct. L. Ron Hubbard

We need to reclaim our American system of limited government, low taxes, reasonable regulations, and sound money, which has blessed us with unprecedented prosperity. And it has done more to help the poor than any other economic system ever designed. Paul Ryan

After the Revolution in '49, all the films were propaganda. They serviced the government and carried the message that the government wants to relay to the people. But I think, in the last 10 years, because the film market is opening and there's an expansion of all the cinemas in China, it's now a lot like Hollywood productions. Wong Kar-wai

The Canadian government continues to say they will not help us if we go to war with Iraq. However, the prime minister of Canada said he'd like to help, but he's pretty sure that last time he checked, Canada had no army. Conan O'Brien

Our whole constitutional heritage rebels at the thought of giving government the power to control men's minds. Thurgood Marshall

The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state. Thomas Sowell

Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion. Narendra Modi

If it is a crime to love the South, its cause and its President, then I am a criminal. I would rather lie down in this prison and die than leave it owing allegiance to a government such as yours. Belle Boyd

Government spending is taxation. When you look at this, I've never heard of a poor person spending himself into prosperity; let alone I've never heard of a poor person taxing himself into prosperity. Arthur Laffer

No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It's because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand - demand - demand change. Joe Biden

As a governor, I am naturally inclined to focus on the domestic side of protecting the United States. Bill Owens

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money. Margaret Thatcher

Everything that makes man's life worthwhile - family, work, education, a place to rear one's children and a place to rest one's head - all this depends on the decisions of government; all can be swept away by a government which does not heed the demands of its people, and I mean all of its people. Robert Kennedy

One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don't go into government. Donald Trump

But no one has yet succeeded in reducing the size or scope of the federal government. James Q. Wilson

It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it. Thomas Sowell

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government. Alexander Hamilton

There are no adequate substitutes for father, mother, and children bound together in a loving commitment to nurture and protect. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, can take the place of the family in the scheme of things. Gerald R. Ford

Without the ability to talk about government power, there's no way for citizens to make sure this power isn't being misused. Aaron Swartz

I did not want my tombstone to read, 'She kept a really clean house.' I think I'd like them to remember me by saying, 'She opened government to everyone.' Ann Richards

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it. Alexis de Tocqueville

I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, there is something profoundly un-American about using the brute force of government to bully someone. Rand Paul

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

Those who cry out that the government should 'do something' never even ask for data on what has actually happened when the government did something, compared to what actually happened when the government did nothing. Thomas Sowell

If you ask the government to solve all of your problems, it's a bit like asking your wife to cook and clean, to raise the children, to hold down a second job to help with the family finances, to keep her parents happy and well and keep your parents happy and well, and to also - to do the lawn and clean the gutters. P. J. O'Rourke

At no time during the period intervening between the ratification of the Constitution and the inauguration of the new government were the leaders in Federalism certain that the agrarian party, which had opposed the Constitution, might not render the instrument ineffectual by securing possession of Congress. Charles A. Beard

One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it. Ronald Reagan

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. Ronald Reagan

My role at Lockheed Martin puts me in contact with extraordinary leaders in many fields - from science and engineering to philanthropy and government. And since we also work closely with our nation's armed forces, we tend to reflect a lot on leadership and how we can inspire successful teamwork, cooperation, and partnerships. Marillyn Hewson

I believe that all the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. William Henry Harrison

Say what you like about my bloody murderous government,' I says, 'but don't insult me poor bleedin' country. Edward Abbey

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. Andrew Jackson

The government I led gave ordinary people peace, security, dignity, and opportunity to progress. Benazir Bhutto

A Union that can only be maintained by swords and bayonets has no charm for me. If the Union is dissolved and government disrupted, I shall return to my native state and share the miseries of my people, and save in defense will draw my sword on none. Robert E. Lee

A claim for equality of material position can be met only by a government with totalitarian powers. Friedrich August von Hayek

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. Abraham Lincoln

Let's make it simple: Government control means uniformity, regulation, fees, inspection, and yes, compliance. Tom Graves

Government is at its worst when you have apathy from its citizens. Jesse Ventura

There are two types of encryption: one that will prevent your sister from reading your diary and one that will prevent your government. Bruce Schneier

In a free society, government reflects the soul of its people. If people want change at the top, they will have to live in different ways. Our major social problems are not the cause of our decadence. They are a reflection of it. Cal Thomas

Government tends to stifle innovation, and it abhors improvisation. Any good military strategist will tell you that a battle plan rarely survives past the first engagement. After that, you have to improvise to survive and to win. Betsy DeVos

Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government. Milton Friedman

We live under a government of men and morning newspapers. Wendell Phillips

My resume is lean enough that I don't have the added baggage that is not necessary to be able to be successful in government. Grace Poe

There is often, in the affairs of government, more efficiency and wisdom in non-action than in action. John C. Calhoun

My mom was the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Chicago Law School, in 1946. She had leadership roles in the law, in government and the corporate world. She was a great role model in that she felt anything was possible. John W. Rogers, Jr.

Voters quickly forget what a man says. Richard M. Nixon

If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'? Paul Harvey

If taxation without consent is robbery, the United States government has never had, has not now, and is never likely to have, a single honest dollar in its treasury. If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized. Lysander Spooner

Our government and its social policies, its tax breaks, the way school days work, so much of the country we live in is built for married couples with a male breadwinner and a female domestic laborer. Government needs to be massively altered in order to serve this population. Rebecca Traister

People are constantly applying double standards. Take the United States, for example. Washington wants the whole world to admire the country for its democracy. Then the government sends out its army, in the name of this democracy, and leaves behind the kind of chaos we see in Iraq. Jacob Zuma

The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people. Andrew Johnson

The trial by jury might safely be introduced into a despotic government, if the jury were to exercise no right of judging of the law, or the justice of the law. Lysander Spooner

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is. Thomas Jefferson

Man is not free unless government is limited. Ronald Reagan

Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it's wrong. Ron Paul

For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

In an age where everything and everyone is linked through networks of glass and air, no one - no business, organization, government agency, country - is an island. We need to do right by all our stakeholders, and that's how you create value for shareholders. And one thing is for sure - no organization can succeed in a world that is failing. Don Tapscott

Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have. P. J. O'Rourke

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home. Winston Churchill

Democracy passes into despotism. Plato

Let a durable and firm peace be established and this government be confined rigidly to the few great objects for which it was instituted, leaving the States to contend in generous rivalry to develop, by the arts of peace, their respective resources, and a scene of prosperity and happiness would follow, heretofore unequaled on the globe. John C. Calhoun

If you persist in your purpose of secession, there will be war - a bloody and cruel war. Not only will the North fight, but she will also triumph. The experiment of secession will fail, and the South, in ruin and desolation, will bitterly repent the day when she attempted to overthrow a wise and beneficent government. Ambrose Burnside

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories. Thomas Jefferson

I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world. Lyndon B. Johnson


One of these days the people of Louisiana are going to get good government - and they aren't going to like it. Huey Long

The task of the government is not only to pour honey into a cup, but sometimes to give bitter medicine. Vladimir Putin

When man lives under government, he is fallen, his worth is gone, and his nature tarnished. Adam Weishaupt

Public corruption is the FBI's top criminal priority. The threat - which involves the corruption of local, state, and federally elected, appointed, or contracted officials - strikes at the heart of government, eroding public confidence and undermining the strength of our democracy. James Comey

Every society, all government, and every kind of civil compact therefore, is or ought to be, calculated for the general good and safety of the community. George Mason

Our nation is built on the bedrock principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. Adrian Cronauer

There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people. Nelson Mandela

If you're going to have a public subsidy to education, vouchers are clearly a better way of delivering it. They should result in some loosening up and privatization of the government school system. Peter Brimelow

Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable. Bill Maher

To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places. Wendell Phillips

The word democracy comes from the Greek and means, literally, government by the people. Robert W. Welch, Jr.

Who controls the issuance of money controls the government! Nathan Meyer Rothschild

Americans chose a limited government that exists to protect our rights, not to grant them. Marco Rubio

In a single generation, the Internet has given to virtually every person on the face of the earth the ability to communicate with fellow human beings on virtually any topic, at any time, and in every nook and cranny on the globe. This magnificent invention has done this without succumbing to government control. Bob Barr

The world will not accept dictatorship or domination. Mikhail Gorbachev

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose. Margaret Thatcher

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Abraham Lincoln

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless. Milton Friedman

Dealing with the government does not mean you have to give a bribe. Gautam Adani

Voters did say 'repeal health care', they did say 'reduce the size of government.' But not a single one of them from the tea party or anywhere said 'give tax breaks to the wealthiest.' Chuck Schumer

The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is. We must not let government programs disconnect our souls from each other. J. C. Watts

We don't want the efficiency of the federal government and the compassion of the IRS to run our health care. Todd Akin

He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. Grover Cleveland

To me, democratic socialism means democracy. It means creating a government that represents all of us, not just the wealthiest people in the country. Bernie Sanders

If Congress refuse to listen to and grant what women ask, there is but one course left then to pursue. What is there left for women to do but to become the mothers of the future government? Victoria Woodhull

I believe that the Framers of the Constitution made their intent clear when they wrote the First Amendment. I believe they wanted to keep the new government from endorsing one religion over another, not erase the public consciousness or common faith. Nick Rahall

It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot. Susan B. Anthony

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another. Voltaire

I believe that government is too large, costs too much, spends too much, and has too much regulatory power in our lives. Tim Walberg

If we would vote in mass on the more promising ticket, or, if the two are equally bad, would throw out the party that is in, and wait till the next election and then throw out the other party that is in - then, I say, the commercial politician would feel a demand for good government and he would supply it. Lincoln Steffens

I would bring the government back to what it was intended to be - a plain economical government. James K. Polk

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds. John Perry Barlow

If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the troubles will come to an end, and the question which now distracts the country will be settled just as surely as all other difficulties of like character which have originated in this government have been adjusted. Abraham Lincoln

Pakistan is rich in sporting talent, but the only thing needed is to have sincere and honest administrators who should be held accountable by the government. Pakistan should be recognised as a sporting nation and not as a terrorist country. Jahangir Khan

Being a patriot doesn't mean prioritizing service to government above all else. Being a patriot means knowing when to protect your country, knowing when to protect your Constitution, knowing when to protect your countrymen, from the violations of and encroachments of adversaries. And those adversaries don't have to be foreign countries. Edward Snowden

The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power. John Stuart Mill

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. Thomas Jefferson

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there. P. J. O'Rourke

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies. Benazir Bhutto

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

Directing a movie is a little bit like being back in student government and putting on the homecoming dance. You're like, 'You put up the streamers, and you hire the DJ, and you get the punch bowl.' Some people are just like, 'This dance sucks.' And you're like, 'No no, this dance is awesome!' You have to be really positive. Mike Birbiglia

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

Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States. George W. Bush

Maintaining checks and balances on the power of the Judiciary Branch and the other two branches is vital to keep the form of government set up by our Founding Fathers. Todd Tiahrt

At the end of the day, the government, local government all bow to public pressure. Ma Jun

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people. Eleanor Roosevelt

To rule is easy, to govern difficult. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men. Plato

A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed. Rene Descartes

I know what it's like to start a business. I know how extra ordinarily difficult it is to build something from nothing. I know how government kills jobs and, yes, I know how it can help from time- to-time. Mitt Romney

Strong government doesn't mean simply military power or an efficient intelligence apparatus. Instead, it should mean effective, fair administration - in other words, 'good governance.' Raghuram Rajan

We need to change attitudes. We can only change attitudes by working together. Government will do its bit, but I want you all to do your bit, too. So speak out, stand up against violence against women and girls, and that's the way we can eradicate it. Theresa May

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending. Andrew Jackson

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P. J. O'Rourke

Since it is necessary to grant six million Filipinos their rights, so that they may be in fact Spaniards, let the government grant these rights freely and spontaneously, without damaging reservations, without irritating mistrust. Jose Rizal

Good intentions often get muddled with very complex execution. The last time the government tried to make taxes easier, it created a 1040 EZ form with a 52-page help booklet. Brad D. Smith

The real cure for what ails our health care system today is less government and more freedom. Steve Forbes

In the 1980s and 1990s, radical change in economic policies fostered by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher put the brakes on government planning and ushered in a new free-market supply-side era and a two-decade boom. That model has been abandoned in the new century. This must be reversed. Lawrence Kudlow

We do not want to live in a theocracy. We should maintain that barrier and government has no business telling someone what they ought to believe or how they should conduct their private lives. Robert Reich

A good government may, indeed, redress the grievances of an injured people; but a strong people can alone build up a great nation. Thomas Francis Meagher

I think we're heading towards a world of what I call 'technological socialism.' Where technology - not the government or the state - will begin to take care of us. Technology will provide our healthcare for free. The best education in the world - for free. Peter Diamandis

Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility. Dalton Trumbo

There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people. Ray Bradbury

In the scheme of our national government, the presidency is preeminently the people's office. Grover Cleveland

Our Constitution exists to secure individual freedom, the essential condition of human flourishing. Liberty is not provided by government; liberty preexists government. It's our natural birthright, not a gift from the sovereign. Our founders upended things and divided power to enshrine a promise, not a process. Don Willett

Cable companies aren't bad because they're parts of unwieldy media conglomerates. They're bad because they're monopolies (even where they are no longer legally exclusive) and because the government policies that made them monopolies rewarded lobbying over customer service. Virginia Postrel

The bottom line is there are lots of problems that were not created by government. The biggest one is loss of middle class incomes, loss of good-paying jobs which was created by technology and globalization. Above all, when you can move a job to China or India, it reduces wages. Chuck Schumer

As an Indian, and now as a politician and a government minister, I've become rather concerned about the hype we're hearing about our own country, all this talk about India becoming a world leader, even the next superpower. Shashi Tharoor

The country voted to leave the European Union, and it is the duty of the Government and of Parliament to make sure we do just that. Theresa May

A people cannot long retain their freedom, whose government is incapable of protecting them. Oliver Ellsworth

The government must adopt a rights-based approach that speaks to the needs and aspirations of surrogate mothers, children born out of surrogacy, and all individuals who want access to altruistic surrogacy services. Kapil Sibal

Native Americans are the original inhabitants of the land that now constitutes the United States. They have helped develop the fundamental principles of freedom of speech and separation of powers that form the foundation of the United States Government. Joe Baca

Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people. William McKinley

Under the leaden sway of Alexander III's government, the silence of the graveyard prevailed. Russian society, equally discouraged by the collapse of all hopes for peaceful reforms and by the apparent ineffectiveness of the revolutionary movement, was in the grip of a mood of depression and resignation. Rosa Luxemburg

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Thomas Paine

What the government wants is something they never had before. They want total awareness. The question is, is that something we should be allowing? Edward Snowden

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency. Edward Snowden

If a strong government finds that it can, with impunity, destroy a weak people, then the hour has struck for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment. Haile Selassie

Disillusionment can come as fast as a gust, but building faith that the government won't inflate again is like building a new sailboat, a project of years. Amity Shlaes

Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike. Plato

For almost two centuries, American gray wolves, vilified in fact as well as fiction, were the victims of vicious government extermination programs. By the time the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, only a few hundred of these once-great predators were left in the lower 48 states. Lydia Millet

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. John Adams

The fundamental purpose of government is to protect its citizens. Arlen Specter

Every country has the government it deserves. Joseph de Maistre

The whole New Deal was in a sense just a series of public options, some more optional than others, that offered government as an alternative to the often-flawed private market. Adam Cohen

The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a government unworthy to lead. Donald Trump

I believe we need to attract a new generation of the best and brightest to public service and I believe that government can be a source of inspiration, not degradation. Andrew Cuomo

The happiness of society is the end of government. John Adams

Left-wing politicians take away your liberty in the name of children and of fighting poverty, while right-wing politicians do it in the name of family values and fighting drugs. Either way, government gets bigger and you become less free. Harry Browne

When the Soviet Union fell, optimistic scholars believed the world had shifted inexorably in the direction of free markets and liberal democracy. Instead, the West gradually embraced bigger government and weaker social bonds, creating a fragmented society in which the only thing we all belong to, as President Barack Obama puts it, is the state. Ben Shapiro

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

Government has three primary functions. It should provide for military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property. Milton Friedman

The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government. James K. Polk

The British Government very naturally would like to see in India the form of democratic constitutions it knows best and thinks best, under which the Government of the country is entrusted to one or other political party in accordance with the turn of elections. Muhammad Ali Jinnah


Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people. Joe Biden

We have over 500,000 illegal immigrants living in Arizona. And we simply cannot sustain it. It costs us a tremendous amount of money of course in health care, in education, and then, on top of it all, in incarceration. And the federal government doesn't reimburse us on any of these things. Jan Brewer

I don't believe newspaper reporters can substitute for a district attorney, but a newspaper has a very valid investigative role. Newspaper reports on corruption in government, racketeering and organized crime conditions can be very helpful to your communities and the whole country. Robert Kennedy

Providing for the common good, making people feel secure in their communities and homes - this is the central job of government. it's why all of us are here serving our state and our people. John Baldacci

Almost every economist agrees that the American health care system is unsustainable. Medical care is so expensive that it is busting all of our budgets - government, business, and personal. Eventually, the medical price bubble will pop. What, then, are the alternatives? Jim Cooper

We don't need new taxes. We need new taxpayers, people that are gainfully employed, making money and paying into the tax system. And then we need a government that has the discipline to take that additional revenue and use it to pay down the debt and never grow it again. Marco Rubio

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

Of course the biggest mafia in Russia has always been the government; in Soviet times, the Communist Party, and now a circle of former KGB and FSB. Martin Cruz Smith

In so far as the government lands can be disposed of, I am in favor of cutting up the wild lands into parcels so that every poor man may have a home. Abraham Lincoln

In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office. Ambrose Bierce

The U.S. immigration laws are bad - really, really bad. I'd say treatment of immigrants is one of the greatest injustices done in our government's name. Bill Gates

To better deal with shortages of qualified applicants now and in the future, government policy makers need to acknowledge that government job training programs could stand improvement. Elaine Chao

If elected, I would not be the mere president of a party - I would endeavor to act independent of party domination and should feel bound to administer the government untrammeled by party schemes. Zachary Taylor

What I'm thinking about more and more these days is simply the importance of transparency, and Jefferson's saying that he'd rather have a free press without a government than a government without a free press. Esther Dyson

Even the government understands that the environmental challenge is so big that no single agency can handle it. It needs collaboration among all the stakeholders - companies, governments, NGOs and the public. Public accountability will be the ultimate driving force. Ma Jun

No matter where you stand politically - even if you're unsure of what your political ideology is - it is important to take part in the process of shaping our government. Brad Henry

This is a government takeover of our healthcare system. It is the government basically running the entire healthcare system, turning large insurers into de facto public utilities, depriving people of choice, depriving people of options, raising people's prices, raising taxes when we need new jobs. Paul Ryan

My hope is that the Chinese government will come to realise that it is futile to repress free speech, and that contrary to what they believe a regime's strength rests not its suppression of a plurality of opinions and ideas, but in its capacity and willingness to encourage them. Ma Jian

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business. Herbert Hoover

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

Unless your government is respectable, foreigners will invade your rights; and to maintain tranquillity, it must be respectable - even to observe neutrality, you must have a strong government. Alexander Hamilton

Obesity is a societal issue. We have to come together with government, business, civil society, and NGOs to create solutions for this. Muhtar Kent

As a conservative who believes in limited government, I believe that the only check on government power in real time is a free and independent press. Mike Pence

What I object to the current government intervention in so-called 'solving the crisis', they haven't solved anything. They've just postponed it. Marc Faber

Among the chartered responsibilities of the federal government were, in those areas where appropriate - such as facilitating interstate commerce - to provide for justice and domestic tranquility, the common defense, and to secure the blessings of liberty. Chris Gibson

They have seized upon the government by bribery and corruption. They have made speculation and public robbery a science. They have loaded the nation, the state, the county, and the city with debt. Denis Kearney

The American Dream is not being dependent on the federal government for your health care, for your automobile, for your college education, for your student loan on and on and on. Marsha Blackburn

If you don't like the idea that most of the money spent on lottery tickets supports government programs, you should know that most of the earnings from mutual funds support investment advisors' and mutual fund managers' retirement. Robert Kiyosaki

National leaders who find themselves wilting under the withering criticisms by members of the media, would do well not to take such criticism personally but to regard the media as their allies in keeping the government clean and honest, its services. Corazon Aquino

I don't think the government is out to get me or help someone else get me but it wouldn't surprise me if they were out to sell me something or help someone else sell me something. I mean, why else would the Census Bureau want to know my telephone number? Andy Rooney

In the first weeks after Hiroshima, extravagant statements by President Truman and other official spokesmen for the U.S. government transformed the inception of the atomic age into the most mythologized event in American history. Stewart Udall

It is vain to expect a well-balanced government without a well-balanced society. Gideon Welles

The right solemnly proclaimed at the birth of the States, and which has been affirmed and reaffirmed in the bills of rights of the States subsequently admitted into the Union of 1789, undeniably recognizes in the people the power to resume the authority delegated for the purposes of Government. Jefferson Davis

Some doomsayers think the collapse will be triggered by runaway government spending, excessive taxation, oppressive regulation, food shortages, fuel shortages or natural disasters such as deadly pandemics or lethal changes in the world's climate. Robert Higgs

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. Benjamin Franklin

When you hear a lot of stories about Africa, and you get to a place like Kenya and other countries like that, where they think the same way we do, I was happy to find that the Schedule of Rights that I drew for the Kenyan Government was working very well. Thurgood Marshall

I believe that for the small numbers of Jewish people in the United States, they exercise a tremendous amount of influence on the affairs of government. Louis Farrakhan

Bitcoin is amazingly transformative because it's the first time in the entire history of the world in which anybody can now send or receive any amount of money, with anyone else, anywhere on the planet, without having to ask permission from any bank or government. Roger Ver

The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity. Martin Van Buren

I would argue that education, actual learning - it is hard work. It's very personal. Your parents don't teach you anything. Your teachers don't teach you anything. The government doesn't teach you anything. You read it. You don't understand it; you read it again. You break a pencil and read it again. Dean Kamen

Anyone who saw Nagasaki would suddenly realize that they'd been kept in the dark by the United States government as to what atomic bombs can do. Lawrence Ferlinghetti

It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government. Alexander Hamilton

I think that the Internet is going to be one of the major forces for reducing the role of government. The one thing that's missing, but that will soon be developed, is a reliable e-cash - a method whereby on the Internet you can transfer funds from A to B without A knowing B or B knowing A. Milton Friedman

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it. Abraham Lincoln

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned. Herbert Hoover

It seems to many of us that if we are to avoid the eventual catastrophic world conflict, we must strengthen the United Nations as a first step toward a world government patterned after our own government with a legislature, executive and judiciary, and police to enforce its international laws and keep the peace. Walter Cronkite

The soldiers never explained to the government when an Indian was wronged, but reported the misdeeds of the Indians. Geronimo

It was under a solemn consciousness of the dangers from ecclesiastical ambition, the bigotry of spiritual pride, and the intolerance of sects... that is was deemed advisable to exclude from the national government all power to act upon the subject. Joseph Story

The story of Detroit's bankruptcy was simple enough: Allow capitalism to grow the city, campaign against income inequality, tax the job creators until they flee, increase government spending in order to boost employment, promise generous pension plans to keep people voting for failure. Rinse, wash and repeat. Ben Shapiro

Governments are composed of human beings, and all of the frailties that humans possess are absorbed into these governments and become active within these governments. Hatred, anger, jealousy, fear, greed, distrust and the whole host of afflictions that humans must bear, lurk just beneath the surface of civility displayed by 'government.' John McAfee

Taxes are like abortion, and not just because both are grotesque procedures supported by Democrats. You're for them or against them. Taxes go up or down; government raises taxes or lowers them. But Democrats will not let the words 'abortion' or 'tax hikes' pass their lips. Ann Coulter

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history. Dalai Lama

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. Theodore Roosevelt

Good government is the outcome of private virtue. John Jay Chapman

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. Sydney J. Harris

I am a believer in smaller government, limited government, less regulation, less taxes, because I think to have more of those things, we suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit of this nation. Matt Bevin

If terror groups are to be defeated, it is national governments that will have to do so. In nations like India, governments will have to call on the patriotism of citizens to fight the terrorists. In a nation like Pakistan, the government will have to be persuaded to deal with those in their midst who are complicit. Bill Kristol

I have no religion, and at times I wish all religions at the bottom of the sea. He is a weak ruler who needs religion to uphold his government; it is as if he would catch his people in a trap. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

You don't pay taxes - they take taxes. Chris Rock

The greater part of the governments on earth may be termed monarchical aristocracies, or hereditary dominions independent of the people. Ezra Stiles

After so many cases of terror attacks related to Islamic militancy remaining unresolved in the last few years, the government has no moral authority to stay in power. Sheikh Hasina

It's not government that creates jobs; it's small business. Our job is to make sure they have the access to capital, the access to contracting opportunities, and the help, advice and mentoring that they need to go out and be successful. Karen Mills


Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful. Herbert Hoover

Healthcare should be between the doctor and the patient. And if the doctor says something needs to be done, the government should guarantee it gets paid for. Michael Moore

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear - kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor - with the cry of grave national emergency. Douglas MacArthur

A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible. Woodrow Wilson

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves. Grover Cleveland

Americans should not have to wonder if their government is actively looking to subvert them or their political views. We live in a nation where respect for differing beliefs and a vibrant political discourse play an important role in shaping our government. Mike Turner

If government were a product, selling it would be illegal. P. J. O'Rourke

As our federal government has grown too large and too powerful, the real loss has been the freedom of people to govern their own lives and participate fully in the American dream. Steve Forbes

In all her history, from the formation of the federal government until the hour of secession, no year stands out more prominently than the year 1858 as evidencing the national patriotism of Virginia. John Sergeant Wise

Churches know more about poverty than any government will ever know, because we're dealing with the poor every day. Rick Warren

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. John W. Gardner

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done. Thomas Jefferson

Some parents struggle to put food on the table. And plenty of women aren't getting the pay they deserve. While I don't expect the government to solve all these problems, I do want leaders who care about these things and do what they can to help. Chrissy Teigen

Freedom of speech means freedom for those who you despise, and freedom to express the most despicable views. It also means that the government cannot pick and choose which expressions to authorize and which to prevent. Alan Dershowitz

Liberty does not exist where rights are on one side and power on the other. To be liberty, rights must be armed with vital powers. A people cannot be free who do not participate in the control of the government which operates upon them. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. Gerald R. Ford

You can't run a government from one single person. What instead matters is that leadership be about gathering around extraordinary individuals and getting the best out of them. Justin Trudeau

Our government is founded upon the intelligence of the people. I for one do not despair of the republic. I have great confidence in the virtue of the great majority of the people, and I cannot fear the result. Andrew Jackson

I have never forgotten my days as an Eagle Scout. I didn't know it at the time, but what really came out of my Scouting was learning how to lead and serve the community. It has come in handy in my career in government. Lloyd Bentsen

The laws given on Mount Sinai for the government of man and woman were equal; the precepts of Jesus make no distinction. Lucretia Mott

The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return. Gore Vidal

History tells us that America does best when the private sector is energetic and entrepreneurial and the government is attentive and engaged. Who among us, really, would, looking back, wish to edit out either sphere at the entire expense of the other? Jon Meacham

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of common man. William Beveridge

Everything that has happened in my life is because of good government and because the United States of America was the greatest nation on the face of the earth. Andrew Young

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government. Thomas Jefferson

We journalists are a bit like vultures, feasting on war, scandal and disaster. Turn on the news, and you see Syrian refugees, Volkswagen corruption, dysfunctional government. Yet that reflects a selection bias in how we report the news: We cover planes that crash, not planes that take off. Nicholas Kristof

We believe in individual initiative, personal responsibility, opportunity, freedom, small government, the Constitution. These principles, these American principles are key to getting our economy back to being successful and leading the world. Mitt Romney

The government is tottering. We must deal it the death blow an any cost. To delay action is the same as death. Vladimir Lenin

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment. Franklin D. Roosevelt

The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. Wilhelm Reich

You know that big government doesn't hurt big corporations. They've got the best lawyers and accountants in the world. You know who gets destroyed by big government? It's the little guys. Marco Rubio

Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government. Jeremy Bentham

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. Will Rogers

As a Cherokee, I can attest to the fact that Native Americans have been on the losing side of history. Our rights have been infringed upon, our treaties have been broken, our culture has been stolen, and our tribes have been decimated at the hands of our own United States government. Markwayne Mullin

I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University. William F. Buckley, Jr.

Here in Israel, we want the boys back home, we demand it from our government, who often pay a steep price to get hostages back. But we need a happy ending. We don't want to deal with those days after release, their post-trauma or reintroduction to society. Yet coming home is only the start of their journey. Gideon Raff

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: 'Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?' If you don't ask those questions, your governance will not be good. Pope Francis

Dictators can fix up their entire families in good jobs, in or around government, and often do. In democracies, such a practice is frowned upon. Privileged access to the corridors of power through family connections and a kind of old boys' network, is also deemed an abuse of power, and so it is. Jimmy Reid

I can't really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government. Jimmy Carter

Good ideas are the backbone of good government. Brian Schweitzer

Money is power, and in that government which pays all the public officers of the states will all political power be substantially concentrated. Andrew Jackson

Because tax cuts create an incentive to increase output, employment, and production, they also help balance the budget by reducing means-tested government expenditures. A faster-growing economy means lower unemployment and higher incomes, resulting in reduced unemployment benefits and other social welfare programs. Arthur Laffer

The military people don't like it; the government probably doesn't like it, but the people should know what they're sending their young people into when they permit their governments to declare war and engage in war. Walter Cronkite

The apology, that is constantly put forth for the injustice of government, viz., that a man must consent to give up some of his rights, in order to have his other rights protected - involves a palpable absurdity, both legally and politically. Lysander Spooner

Americans are hard working, innovative, proud people who want bad government policies and high taxes to get out of the way so they can take care of their families and pursue their dreams. Tim Walberg

Same-sex marriage is not the final nail in the coffin for traditional marriage. It is just another road sign toward the substitution of government for God. Every moral discussion now pits the wisest moral arbiters among us - the Supreme Court, President Obama - against traditional religion. Ben Shapiro

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective. Pratibha Patil

The White House doesn't create jobs. The government together - White House, Congress - creates policies that allow for greater job creation. Jay Carney

Those who believe that after I have left the government as prime minister, I will go into a permanent retirement, really should have their heads examined. Lee Kuan Yew

A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy. Benjamin Disraeli

That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one. Abraham Lincoln

The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government. Barry Goldwater

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. William E. Gladstone

Insurance companies, government agencies, and the pharmaceutical industry all push for mental health care that is brief, intermittent, and focused on quick fixes, despite the fact that many people struggle with emotional difficulties that can only be addressed over time using special psychodynamic skills. Robert J. Waldinger

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Thomas Jefferson

It is not questioned that the Federal Government is one of limited powers. Its powers are such, and such only, as are expressly granted in the Constitution or are properly incident to the expressly granted powers and necessary to their execution. James K. Polk

Well, we have certainly produced great art before we did this. In my view, there are any number of areas of government which tax money should not be spent. Charlton Heston

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Thomas Jefferson

Having a small business and being one of thousands of people whom no one in government will listen to, I have decided to run for supervisor as a person. Harvey Milk

I would still ask the government not to drive the people of India to desperation, or else there is no other course left open to the people except to inaugurate the policy of non-cooperation, though not necessarily the programme of Mr. Gandhi. Muhammad Ali Jinnah

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

The income tax is a twentieth-century socialist experiment that has failed. Before the income tax was imposed on us just 80 years ago, government had no claim to our income. Only sales, excise, and tariff taxes were allowed. Alan Keyes

All government wars are unjust. Murray Rothbard


Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. Henry Clay

It is the knowledge that all men have weaknesses and that many have vices that makes government necessary. James Monroe

For the bourgeoisie, the main danger against which it had to be protected, that which had to be avoided at all costs, was armed uprising, was the armed people, was the workers taking to the streets in an assault against the government. Michel Foucault

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. Milton Friedman

Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us. P. J. O'Rourke

We've been in the nation-building business since World War I, and especially since WWII. The goal is not a Jeffersonian Democracy in Afghanistan, but a representative government that respects human rights, protects its own people, and is a friend of the West. These are very realistic - and necessary - goals. Oliver North

Nonetheless, we continue to be obsessed with finding or inventing a European nation which, as in the nation state, guarantees homogeneity and thus an appropriate form of democracy and centralized government. Ulrich Beck

If you believe, like I do, that the world is abundant with possibilities, then we need to make sure we build capacity so that everybody is successful or can be successful in the pursuit of their dreams - not the dreams of someone from government, but their own dreams. Jeb Bush

Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government. Aristotle

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government. George Washington

Democracy must learn to defend itself. Mikhail Gorbachev

If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also. Fred Woodworth

I am a naturalized U.S. citizen, which means that, unlike native-born citizens, I had to prove to the U.S. government that I merited citizenship. Bharati Mukherjee

The clever, albeit fragile, coalition against terrorism brought together by the U.S. government might be able to advance the transition from classical international law to a cosmopolitan order. Jurgen Habermas

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. Milton Friedman

We're in this amazing frontier of transparency. WikiLeaks. Edward Snowden. 'Westworld' is reflecting that with these robots gaining consciousness. Them coming into consciousness is almost like us, human beings, coming into the truth of the fact that government is corrupt. Police are corrupt. Banks are corrupt. Etcetera, etcetera. Thandie Newton

You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one. Rush Limbaugh

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will. Thomas Jefferson

That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy. Thomas Babington Macaulay

China's republican politics is like a child who just started schooling. He must have a good teacher and be surrounded by good friends. By the same token, the Chinese people, new to the republican politics, must be educated properly. The revolutionary government should be the people's tutor to impart advanced awareness and experience. Sun Yat-sen

Well, first of all, I think that a lot of the voters who are voting for the tea party candidates have really good impulses. That is, they believe that for years and years and years, the people with wealth and power or government power have done well and ordinary people have not. That's true. William J. Clinton

The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security. Thomas Paine

There are some things the general public does not need to know and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets, and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows. Katharine Graham

Free enterprise, individual opportunity, limited government. They made America great; only they can keep America strong. Reince Priebus

It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for. Will Rogers

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both. James Madison

I was ecstatic they re-named 'French Fries' as 'Freedom Fries'. Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots. Johnny Depp

We were American citizens. We were incarcerated by our American government in American internment camps here in the United States. The term 'Japanese internment camp' is both grammatically and factually incorrect. George Takei

Unwarranted search and seizure by the government officials was unacceptable to the American revolutionaries. Shouldn't it be unacceptable in the digital age, too? Heather Brooke

As a human rights issue, the effort to end violence against women becomes a government's obligation, not just a good idea. Charlotte Bunch

In 1991, the government unleashed the power of India and created a partnership between itself and industry. As a result, India has emerged as an economic success story, and that is a matter of pride for all of us. Kumar Mangalam Birla

A government without the power of defense! It is a solecism. James Q. Wilson

The Confederate flag was the flag of the American South during the civil war. It was the flag of people who were fighting against their own government in an attempt to retain slavery. It was the flag of people who thought slavery was no problem, who thought slavery was a good thing. John Niven

Millions of Americans were duped by the federal government and the Federal Reserve into buying homes they could not afford and failed to count the cost. When the financial crisis of 2008 hit, they could not keep up the monthly mortgage payments and defaulted. Mark Skousen

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. Edmund Burke

I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more. Clint Eastwood

For me, it all begins with faith; it begins with what matters most, and I try and put what I believe to be moral truth first. My philosophy of government second. And my politics third. Mike Pence

Real prosperity comes from everybody in the country working together in a growth mode. Real prosperity comes as a result of people's own initiative and efforts and so forth. Prosperity, if it comes from the government, is not prosperity. It's an existence or a subsistence or whatever, but it isn't prosperity. Rush Limbaugh

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. Milton Friedman

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. John Quincy Adams

The president has been a true friend of the ag industry, because he continues to invest large amounts of money at a time when savings is really the goal of the federal government to deal with the deficit. Mike Johanns

There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do. Bill Bryson

If inequalities of taxable wealth backing up a government service are construed as denying equality before the law, then there is no solution but to have every government service whatever financed out of Washington. M. Stanton Evans

Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people. Grover Cleveland

If you live in a place that you perceive to be a crowded place, you appreciate government; you see it as this thing that protects you against crime, that keeps order, that makes sure that nobody puts a massage parlor next to your house, that keeps other people's dogs from pooping on the sidewalk. Gail Collins

If the government decides to become a tyrannical government, our guns are to protect us against that. Chuck Norris

Women ought to have representatives, instead of being arbitrarily governed without any direct share allowed them in the deliberations of government. Mary Wollstonecraft

I have been in Congress for more than a half century. I have lived through times of fear and times of hope. Of despair and of achievement. I have seen our government at its best, but today I fear that we see our government at its worst. Robert Byrd

Virtual currency, where it's called a bitcoin vs. a U.S. dollar, that's going to be stopped. No government will ever support a virtual currency that goes around borders and doesn't have the same controls. It's not going to happen. Jamie Dimon

If you like small government you need to work hard at having a strong national defense that is not so militant. Personal liberty is the purpose of government, to protect liberty - not to run your personal life, not to run the economy, and not to pretend that we can tell the world how they ought to live. Ron Paul

If anyone should do any pardoning. I should be the one pardoning the government for what they did to the Japanese-American people. Fred Korematsu

If we don't stop immigration - this torrent of immigrants coming in - we're not going to be America anymore because most of the people coming in have no experience with limited government. They don't know what that is. Phyllis Schlafly

The Second Amendment is not about hunting. It is about protecting ourselves from a tyrannical government. Derrick Grayson

The weather is like the government, always in the wrong. Jerome K. Jerome

In the real estate business you learn more about people, and you learn more about community issues, you learn more about life, you learn more about the impact of government, probably than any other profession that I know of. Johnny Isakson

The Obamacare contraception mandate was never about freedom. It was always about pitting secularism against religion, and using the power of government to sponsor secularism. Ben Shapiro

Government 'help' to business is just as disastrous as government persecution... the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off. Ayn Rand

Look, I think the worst case scenario is obvious. I think first of all it doesn't work for very long. It's an unstable government that raises taxes and destroys the image we're building for Canada as a strong place to invest. Stephen Harper

Democracy is an abuse of statistics. Jorge Luis Borges

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams. Jesse Jackson

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind. Thomas Jefferson

A free America... means just this: individual freedom for all, rich or poor, or else this system of government we call democracy is only an expedient to enslave man to the machine and make him like it. Frank Lloyd Wright

My politics are of a practical kind - the integrity of the country, the supremacy of the Federal government, an honorable peace, or none at all. Winfield Scott Hancock

When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties. Marquis de Lafayette

Many people at different levels of the Russian government are open to crypto-currencies. Vitalik Buterin

Truth is the glue that holds government together. Gerald R. Ford

A government must not waiver once it has chosen it's course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward. Otto von Bismarck

The rule of law should be upheld by all political parties. They should neither advise others to break the law, nor encourage others to do so even when they strongly disagree with the legislation put forward by the government of the day. James Callaghan

The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded. Franklin Pierce

More government isn't going to help you get ahead. It's going to hold you back. More government isn't going to create more opportunities. It's going to limit them. Marco Rubio

I was at MSNBC; I was constantly saying to them during Bridgegate, 'You've convicted Governor Christie without one iota of fact attaching him to the decision to stall the traffic on the bridge. Why don't we wait until the federal government or the state government... completes its investigation.' Tom Brokaw

Freedom only for the members of the government, only for the members of the Party - though they are quite numerous - is no freedom at all. Rosa Luxemburg

But only 'rich' people by definition have the 'extra' money to buy things and invest to create economic growth. Do we really want to tax that 'extra' money away - and give it to the government to spend? Does that make any economic sense outside of politics and our emotional desire to make everyone suffer equally through these tough times? Terry Savage

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. Laurence J. Peter

Connectivity enables transparency for better government, education, and health. Bill Gates

I have entered the field to die, if need be, for this government, and never expect to return to peaceful pursuits until the object of this war of preservation has become a fact established. John A. Logan

In a country where Americans sense, quite genuinely, that their freedoms have been taken away by the government - as in the U.S. Patriot Act, as in NSA surveillance - people feel powerless. Jay Parini

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don't like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don't expect freedom to survive very long. Thomas Sowell


So you know, I think that the federal government, the Democrats, and President Obama are selling a lot of hope and change, but no delivery of any of those promises. Jan Brewer

The very purpose of the Second Amendment is to stop the government from disallowing people the means to defend themselves against tyranny. Any proposal to abuse executive power and infringe upon gun rights must be repelled with the stiffest legislative force possible. Steve Stockman

American government is like a train on a track. You have the people on the left shouting; you have the people on the right. But the train's on track. They just keep ploughing ahead. Tom Wolfe

Convinced as I am and as I am from my government that the world needs a new moral architecture over all I believe that this should be the first topic to debate in our world of today, ethics, moral. Hugo Chavez

In Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, the government in a matter of years has put a lot of energy behind recycling food waste as livestock feed. It's environmentally friendly, it provides cheap livestock feed for the farmers in those parts of the world, and it avoids sending the food waste to landfill. Tristram Stuart

America is the only developed nation that has a 2,000-mile border with a developing nation, and the government's refusal to control that border is why there are an estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona and why the nation, sensibly insisting on first things first, resists 'comprehensive' immigration reform. George Will

If government half a century ago had provided us with all our dinners and breakfasts, it would be the practice of our orators today to assume the impossibility of our providing for ourselves. Auberon Herbert

The Supreme Court must strike down the government's illegal spying program as a violation of our Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Rand Paul

The most effective check and balance on government has been an independent press which maintains its credibility by ensuring that its criticism is balanced and based on fact - based indeed on solid journalistic work. Malcolm Turnbull

If the government regulates against use of drones or stem cells or artificial intelligence, all that means is that the work and the research leave the borders of that country and go someplace else. Peter Diamandis

Government alone cannot solve the problems we deal with in our correctional facilities, treatment centers, homeless shelters and crisis centers - we need our faith-based and community partners. Dirk Kempthorne

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security. James Madison

Northeastern and most coastal states will vote for the candidate who is more closely aligned with international cooperation and engagement, secularism and science, gun control, individual freedom in culture and sexuality, and a greater role for the government in protecting the environment and ensuring economic equality. Steven Pinker

From the day of its birth, the anomaly of slavery plagued a nation which asserted the equality of all men, and sought to derive powers of government from the consent of the governed. Within sound of the voices of those who said this lived more than half a million black slaves, forming nearly one-fifth of the population of a new nation. W. E. B. Du Bois

Honesty, integrity, and accountability, the values, which should be the hallmark of this government, have instead been thrown under the bus by an arrogant majority, casualties in a misguided campaign to shield from accountability those who abuse this House. Louise Slaughter

I know people don't like America very much, but the one thing it's very good on is local government. Heather Brooke

Our politicians are stupid. And the Mexican government is much smarter, much sharper, much more cunning. And they send the bad ones over because they don't want to pay for them. They don't want to take care of them. Why should they when the stupid leaders of the United States will do it for them? Donald Trump

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Henry David Thoreau

I left Beijing in the late 1980s to live in Hong Kong because, having been blacklisted by the government, I couldn't publish my works on the mainland. Ma Jian

Governance is complex, difficult, and on the whole, thankless - why ever should the Bright Young Things leave the management of their hotels, newspapers, banks, TV channels and corporations to join, like fleas on a behemoth, the government? Wherein lies the difference between the two worlds? Upamanyu Chatterjee

Throughout American history many of our social gains and much of our progress toward democracy were made possible by the active intervention of the federal government. Harold Washington

Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. James Monroe

'Conservative,' to me, means someone that has an appreciation for the Constitution, that has an appreciation for a limited government and has an appreciation of our nation's founding and our history. Tomi Lahren

Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for. Adlai E. Stevenson

In addition to the executive responsibility of handling and managing the government, the president has an important voice that sets the tone for much of our national discourse. Anthony Scaramucci

We are very much engaged across the government, very much engaged in streamlining and simplifying our activities with borrowers and lenders, because that saves time and saves costs and we believe we can do that while maintaining the same or increased levels of oversight and risk management. Karen Mills

Lower taxes, less government spending on domestic programs and fewer regulations mean a better economy for everybody. Larry Elder

You shouldn't change your behavior because a government agency somewhere is doing the wrong thing. If we sacrifice our values because we're afraid, we don't care very much about those values. Edward Snowden

It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract. Alan Shepard

I had watched for many years and seen how a few rich families held much of Argentina's wealth and power in their hands. So Peron and the government brought in an eight hour working day, sickness pay and fair wages to give poor workers a fair go . Evita Peron

Distrust of government isn't baseless cynicism. It's realism. Ben Shapiro

I tell them the rules are made by the government. Every firm should comply. It doesn't mean they can't compete. Ma Jun

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it. Abraham Lincoln

In my view, Reform and Opening Up began with the abandonment of the 'using class struggle as guiding principle' government policy of the Mao era and, in its place, a commitment to economic development and social harmony. Liu Xiaobo

Full participation in government and society has been a basic right of the country symbolizing the full citizenship and equal protection of all. Charles B. Rangel

We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out. Colin Powell

We have the best government that money can buy. Mark Twain

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty. George Washington

Some people object to libertarian ideas because there are too many irresponsible people in the world - people who will cause trouble if the government doesn't restrain them. Harry Browne

I do not support a federal minimum wage. I think every state has a different economy, a different cost of living. I don't believe that's the role of the federal government. Joni Ernst

If the American government can't stand behind the dollar, the world's benchmark currency, then the global financial system will very likely enter a new era in which there is much less trade and much less economic growth. It would be, by most accounts, the largest self-imposed financial disaster in history. Adam Davidson

Steady, firm, and kind government of prisoners is the truest humanity and the best exercise of duty. It is with convicts as with children: unseasonable indulgence, indiscreetly granted, leads to mischiefs which we may deplore but cannot repair. Dorothea Dix

The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract. Robert A. Heinlein

Where might is mixed with wit, there is too good an accord in a government. Elizabeth I

Parliament of the country is the repository of the sovereign will of the people, and its successful functioning is a joint responsibility of both the government and the Opposition. Pratibha Patil

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint. Alexander Hamilton

The new rage is to say that the government is the cause of all our problems, and if only we had no government, we'd have no problems. I can tell you, that contradicts evidence, history, and common sense. William J. Clinton

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan

Foolish people follow the system, get caught up in media news, what the government wants you to believe and all the higher powers want you to believe, and go down the same path as all the sheep in the cattle market. Tyson Fury

How can anyone govern a nation that has two hundred and forty-six different kinds of cheese? Charles de Gaulle

The right and the physical power of the people to resist injustice, are really the only securities that any people ever can have for their liberties. Practically no government knows any limit to its power but the endurance of the people. Lysander Spooner

I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We're warriors. Soldiers. Nas

The Israeli government has proved over the past year its commitment to peace, both in words and deeds. By contrast, the Palestinians are posing preconditions for renewing the diplomatic process in a way they have not done over the course of 16 years. Benjamin Netanyahu

ISIS despises the Russian government for its support of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and so it's no surprise that ISIS began targeting Russia in 2015, around the same time that Russia first intervened in the Syrian civil war. Peter Bergen

This is a generation weaned on Watergate, and there is no presumption of innocence and no presumption of good intentions. Instead, there is a presumption that, without relentless scrutiny, the government will misbehave. Dee Dee Myers

Nothing is worse, or more of a breach of the social contract between citizen and state, than for government officials, bureaucrats and agencies to waste the money entrusted to them by the people they serve. Bob Riley

I am Mother Jones. The Government can't take my life and you can't take my arm, but you can take my suitcase. Mary Harris Jones

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

I've been in and out of Wall Street since 1949, and I've never seen the type of animosity between government and Wall Street. And I'm not sure where it comes from, but I suspect it's got to do with a general schism in this society which is really becoming ever more destructive. Alan Greenspan

As far as the constitution allows me, I will try to ensure that there is responsible and accountable governance at all levels of government in the country. For I will not have kept my own trust with the Nigerian people if I allow others abuse theirs under my watch. Muhammadu Buhari

World War II was the last government program that really worked. George Will

To me, it was shocking that a government of men could look with such extreme contempt on a movement that was asking nothing except such a simple little thing as the right to vote. Alice Paul

I shall not remind you, Citizen-Directors, of all I have done for the triumph of liberty, the prosperity of St. Domingo, the glory of the French Republic; nor will I protest to you my attachment to our mother country, to my duties; my respect to the constitution, to the laws of the Republic, and my submission to the government. Toussaint Louverture

When people talk about conservative government, that's it in a nutshell. We're using taxpayers' money like we would use our own. We're holding in the reins during good times so we're prepared during bad times. Bill Haslam

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free. Abraham Lincoln

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. H. L. Mencken

The big missing part of the jig-saw is to get the assembly back up and running here in Northern Ireland, to get shared government back in business, that is my objective, and we await the IRA statement to see if this will trigger a new dawn. Peter Hain

Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness. Fred Woodworth

If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement. Ronald Reagan

I support a guaranteed basic income. I think we should take care of sick people. I believe women can make their own choices and that the government is at its best when it's building bridges instead of bombs. Edward Snowden

The federal government does not have the authority to tell landowners and ranchers and farmers that they can't farm and ranch their land because someday an endangered species might live there. Josh Hawley

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. James Madison

No government fights fascism to destroy it. When the bourgeoisie sees that power is slipping out of its hands, it brings up fascism to hold onto their privileges. Buenaventura Durruti

The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much. Ronald Reagan

The 5th Amendment guarantees that defendants can't face 'double jeopardy,' which means the government can't prosecute a person a second time for the same crime if the jury returns a verdict. Only if the jury doesn't reach a decision can prosecutors elect to retry the case. Robert Shapiro

For a country to have a great writer is like having a second government. That is why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


Let the people think they govern and they will be governed. William Penn

Sir, I wish to understand the true principles of the Government. I wish them carried out. I ask nothing more. William Henry Harrison

Certainly we can end racism with love. We can demand that the federal government change its emphasis on racial distinction. bell hooks

Tell the Government, our people shall not starve. Ellen Wilkinson

Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. Lily Tomlin

Nothing can conduce more to the order and stability of a government than the simplicity of the laws, the proper definition of rights, and their impartial and consistent administration. Sam Houston

I understand that government should live within its means, value the money it holds in trust from you the taxpayer, avoid waste and, above all else, observe the first maxim of good government: namely, do no avoidable harm. Tony Abbott

ISIL, AQ, now have the ability to literally reach into our homeland through social media, through the Internet, to recruit and inspire. It makes for a more complicated homeland security environment. And so it requires a whole of government approach, not just military and law enforcement, homeland security, aviation security, and the like. Jeh Johnson

Anyone who thinks that the vice-president can take a position independent of the president of his administration simply has no knowledge of politics or government. You are his choice in a political marriage, and he expects your absolute loyalty. Hubert H. Humphrey

We need to protect the privacy rights of all Americans, and that means stopping the federal government from spying on the cellphones and emails of law-abiding citizens. Ted Cruz

We pledge to you that we will create jobs. End economic uncertainty and make America more competitive. We will cut Washington wasteful spending and reduce the size of government. And we will reform Congress and restore your trust in government. Kevin McCarthy

In the government schools, which are referred to as public schools, Indian policy has been instituted there, and its a policy where they do not encourage, in fact, discourage, critical thinking and the creation of ideas and public education. Russell Means

It is bad policy to regulate everything... where things may better regulate themselves and can be better promoted by private exertions; but it is no less bad policy to let those things alone which can only be promoted by interfering social power. Friedrich List

The government should not be guided by Temporary Excitement, but by Sober Second Thought. Martin Van Buren

The batteries are gradually becoming charged, and if the prudence of the government does not provide an outlet for the currents that are accumulating, some day the spark will be generated. Jose Rizal

The real goal should be reduced government spending, rather than balanced budgets achieved by ever rising tax rates to cover ever rising spending. Thomas Sowell

All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities. James F. Cooper

From the very depth of my being, I challenge the right of any man or any group of men, in business or in government, to tell a fellow human being that he or she is expendable. Jimmy Reid

All government, of course, is against liberty. H. L. Mencken

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

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives. Robert A. Heinlein

We must force the government to stop the bird migration. We must shoot all birds, field all our men and troops... and force migratory birds to stay where they are. Vladimir Zhirinovsky

Every American, regardless of their background, has the right to live free of unwarranted government intrusion. Repealing the worst provisions of the Patriot Act will reign in this gross abuse of power and restore to everyone our basic Constitutional rights. Pete Stark

The cell phone companies add to the problem. Every one they give out, they get money for from the federal government. So they have an incentive to give as many away as possible. And that's exactly what they're doing, and they're making a killing. Timothy Griffin

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. Edmund Burke

Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell. Hugo Black

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. Ronald Reagan

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

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority. George Bancroft

Solidarity and interdependence, a sense of worth, a pride and hope in the future: these are positive gains for those who believe in progressive politics and the beneficial role of government, rather than a detriment. David Blunkett

If any man's money can be taken by a so-called government, without his own personal consent, all his other rights are taken with it; for with his money the government can, and will, hire soldiers to stand over him, compel him to submit to its arbitrary will, and kill him if he resists. Lysander Spooner

I hate big government; I hate being told what to do on a personal basis. Nigel Farage

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived. James Madison

In 70s America, protest used to be very effective, but in subsequent decades municipalities have sneakily created a web of 'overpermiticisation' - requirements that were designed to stifle freedom of assembly and the right to petition government for redress of grievances, both of which are part of our first amendment. Naomi Wolf

The way we're really going to grow the economy is to invest in people, to invest in innovation, to have the federal government put money in the kind of research that will create the new high-technology, biotechnology industries that will create the millions of new jobs. Joe Lieberman

The people of America need personal responsibility and freedom, not dependency on the government. George Allen

We are a government of laws. Any laws some government hack can find to louse up a man who's down. Murray Kempton

To realize peace on the Korean peninsula, and to develop exchange, cooperation between both Koreas, they are the, you know, immediate target of our government. Kim Dae Jung

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. Alexander Hamilton

Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government. Milton Friedman

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them. Abraham Lincoln

The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied. Jeremiah Wright

Smaller government, more individual responsibility, more individual control creates more Republicans. More state power and ownership and control and top-down decision-making creates more Democrats. Grover Norquist

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it. Lao Tzu

The government that governs from afar absolutely requires that the truth and the facts reach its knowledge by every possible channel, so that it may weigh and estimate them better, and this need increases when a country like the Philippines is concerned, where the inhabitants speak and complain in a language unknown to the authorities. Jose Rizal

I am absolutely opposed to a national ID card. This is a total contradiction of what a free society is all about. The purpose of government is to protect the secrecy and the privacy of all individuals, not the secrecy of government. We don't need a national ID card. Ron Paul

History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior. Vladimir Putin

It's very simple. If the American people care about a lot of things including corruption in government, then, in fact, if you use the power to appoint in order to do political business, to clear fields, to save your party money and so on, if it's not a crime - and I believe it is - it certainly is business as usual, politics of corruption. Darrell Issa

It shouldn't take extreme courage and a willingness to go to prison for decades or even life to blow the whistle on bad government acts done in secret. But it does. And that is an immense problem for democracy, one that all journalists should be united in fighting. Glenn Greenwald

Government is essentially immoral. Herbert Spencer

The problem is not that America does not have energy. The problem is that our government - alone among the governments of the world - will not allow its own people to recover the energy that they possess. Jim Talent

My government is working for the common man. Our priority is the poor of the country. We want good governance through a dynamic and seamless government. Narendra Modi

We oppose the reactionary policies of the U.S. government but we do not oppose the American people. We want to have many good friends in the United States. Kim Jong Il

People just want to hear some common sense... and I bring to bear the experience in local government and state government and national government - I was the first woman in history on the Senate Finance Committee - not to mention the diplomatic international experience. Carol Moseley Braun

Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth. John Quincy Adams

We are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world. We are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government. Zachary Quinto

I stand for all those who feel that the government no longer understands the individual and no longer respects individual rights. Harvey Milk

The two greatest priorities for my government are tackling tax evasion and corruption. Mario Monti

There's the idea that people should be able to control how the information that they're giving to websites is used and monetized in a more clear and powerful way. That's something that probably will need government action. Eli Pariser

To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches. Thomas Paine

There is no direct and immediate connection between the individual citizens of a state and the general government. The relation between them is through the state. The Union is a union of states as communities and not a union of individuals. John C. Calhoun

The instant the Government was organized, at the very first Congress, the Northern States evinced a general desire and purpose to use it for their own benefit, and to pervert its powers for sectional advantage, and they have steadily pursued that policy to this day. Robert Toombs

Haitian rice farmers are quite efficient, but they can't compete with U.S. agribusiness that relies on a huge government subsidy, thanks to Ronald Reagan's free market enthusiasms. Noam Chomsky

Hand in hand with freedom of speech goes the power to be heard, to share in the decisions of government which shape men's lives. Robert Kennedy

A constant stream of 'free' money is a perfect way to keep an inefficient or simply bad government in power. As aid flows in, there is nothing more for the government to do - it doesn't need to raise taxes, and as long as it pays the army, it doesn't have to take account of its disgruntled citizens. Dambisa Moyo

National sovereignty is an obligation as well as an entitlement. A government that will not perform the role of a government forfeits the rights of a government. Richard Perle

I was a history and government major at Ohio State University, and I've spent a lot of time just fiddling around with who the next president's going to be, over the years, or who would I like to see in that job, or whatever. And I've come to believe, without any reservation, in this era, the best-prepared person for this job by far is Donald Trump. Bobby Knight

Black people cannot look to government to solve their problems. Shawn Amos

When the state or federal government control the education of all of our children, they have the dangerous and illegitimate monopoly to control and influence the thought process of our citizens. Michael Badnarik

A healthy society rests on three pillars: business, government and civil society, or non-profits. Each has a distinct and important role to play, and all three need to work together synergistically to create the most value for society. John Mackey

Open your newspaper - any day of the week - and you will find a report from somewhere in the world of someone being imprisoned, tortured or executed because his opinions or religion are unacceptable to his government. Peter Benenson

These are issues we've been grappling with since the Constitution was written: how you hold your government to account for its words and deeds. It's all about power and the abuse of power. Valerie Plame

I think a good relationship that Mexico could maintain with the United States and vice versa should be based on trust, on opening - openness and constant dialogue that would allow us essentially to define, share objectives and to work towards those so as to avoid activities which are not known to the other government. Enrique Pena Nieto

The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government. Milton Friedman

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it. P. J. O'Rourke

The people of Zimbabwe have a responsibility to ensure that the government that they elected behaves properly. Thabo Mbeki

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Ronald Reagan

The Framers of the Bill of Rights did not purport to 'create' rights. Rather, they designed the Bill of Rights to prohibit our Government from infringing rights and liberties presumed to be preexisting. William J. Brennan, Jr.

In China, national priorities are established by the Government and then funded by the state; in India, priorities emerge from seemingly endless discussions and arguments amongst myriad interests, and funds have to be found where they might. Shashi Tharoor

The responsibility for good government lies not just with governments themselves but also with every other part of the system they operate in, including media, non-governmental organisations and the public. Geoff Mulgan

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves. Ronald Reagan

Having said that, I believe we must not compound the natural disaster of Katrina by creating a fiscal disaster in Congress - it is our duty to ensure that we reign in other government spending in any event, and especially in this time of national emergency. Chris Chocola

If you're a juvenile delinquent today, you're a hacker. You live in your parent's house; they haven't seen you for two months. They put food outside your door, and you're shutting down a government of a foreign country from your computer. John Waters

And I don't think that government has a role in telling people how to live their lives. Maybe a minister does, maybe your belief in God does, maybe there's another set of moral codes, but I don't think government has a role. Clarence Thomas

It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save the environment. Ansel Adams

We really need a public-interest government that is not taking marching orders from the fossil-fuel industry and the banks and the war profiteers. We really need a government that is acting on our behalf. Jill Stein

The best government is the least government. In some areas, I'm libertarian. I don't subscribe to any one party; they are all bad. Wayne Rogers

So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion. Narendra Modi

SpaceX has the potential of saving the U.S. government $1 billion a year. We are opposed to creating an entrenched monopoly with no realistic means for anyone to compete. Elon Musk

Domestic wiretaps, government television cameras blanketing our streets, spy drones by the thousands flying over our heads. It makes you wonder if the very foundation of this great country, which is liberty, is eroding right before our eyes. Bob Beckel

Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind. William Godwin

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing. Ronald Reagan

After the Manchu government had carried on wars with foreign nations and had been defeated, China was forced to sign many unequal treaties. Foreign nations are still using these treaties to bind China, and as a result, China fails at whatever she attempts. Sun Yat-sen

I considered myself engaged in a war from Day One. And my objective was to force the federal government - the Kennedy administration at that time - into a position where they would have to use the United States military force to enforce my rights as a citizen. James Meredith

I remember the day after the general election when Harold Wilson had lost, I remember quite clearly cycling from my house in Hutton along Long Ridings and feeling what a relief to live in a country with a Tory government again. Philip Hammond

I can reveal today that the U.S. government has information to indicate that individuals tied to terrorist groups in Syria have already attempted to gain access to our country through the U.S. refugee program. Mike McCaul

As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world. Noam Chomsky

The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them in parliament. Vladimir Lenin

The object of my relationship with Vietnam has been to heal the wounds that exist, particularly among our veterans, and to move forward with a positive relationship,... Apparently some in the Vietnamese government don't want to do that and that's their decision. Ho Chi Minh

Where you have no religion, you are sure to have no government, for as religion disappears, anarchy takes place and fixes a compleat Hell on earth till religion returns. Daniel Morgan

Socialism means slavery. Lord Acton


It will be hard to convince people that their welfare is safe in the hands of a federal government when they feel themselves the victims of unjust sectional discrimination. Jeannette Rankin

Those who deny the right of a jury to protect an individual in resisting an unjust law of the government, deny him all defence whatsoever against oppression. Lysander Spooner

Today is a celebration of hope for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people can now take control of their government and their future by creating a society that protects the rights endowed to us by our creator - life, liberty and freedom. Jim DeMint

Now judicial review, beloved by conservatives, can, of course, fulfill the excellent function of declaring government interventions and tyrannies unconstitutional. But it can also validate and legitimize the government in the eyes of the people by declaring these actions valid and constitutional. Murray Rothbard

It is only when there is the supervision and critical oversight from the people that the government will be in a position to do an even better job, and employees of government departments will be the true public servants of the people. Wen Jiabao

Government is not the generator of economic growth; working people are. Phil Gramm

The popularity of leaders like Mandela was an invitation to counter-attack by the government. Mandela was banned from speaking, from attending gatherings, from leaving Johannesburg, from belonging to any organization. Oliver Tambo

Not every innovation in transportation is going to come from government or even a large enterprise. There are smart people out there with tools and skills to come up with great ideas. Anthony Foxx

As long as I don't write about the government, religion, politics, and other institutions, I am free to print anything. Pierre Beaumarchais

And think of how we challenged the idea of a male dominated Parliament with All-Women shortlists and made the cause of gender equality central to our government. We were right to do so. Ed Miliband

I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong? Willie Nelson

It is our job to work for the government of the day and so that means working for Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, and we need to do those preparations just to be sure that we're ready for whoever you, the British public, elect and that's core to our civil service values over the last 150 years. Gus O'Donnell

I have long believed taxpayers make better use of their money than the government ever could. Kay Bailey Hutchison

When it shall be known that, at the time which I was accused of wishing to sunder this island from France - my benefactress - I repeated the oath of fidelity to her, I take pleasure in believing that the government I own, and my fellow-citizens, will render me the justice I merit, and that the enemies of my brethren will be reduced to silence. Toussaint Louverture

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay. Percy Bysshe Shelley

My house was bugged. They couldn't find any information on me being a subversive because I happen to love America; I just don't like some of the things the government is doing. Eartha Kitt

A government of, by, and for the people requires that people talk to people, that we can agree to disagree but do so in civility. If we let the politicians and those who report dictate our discourse, then our course will be dictated. Donna Brazile

The government has a history of not treating people fairly, from the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II to African-Americans in the Civil Rights era. Rand Paul

A corporation's primary goal is to make money. Government's primary role is to take a big chunk of that money and give it to others. Larry Ellison

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

Whether it's Baidu or Chinese versions of YouTube or Sina or Sohu, Chinese Internet sites are getting daily directives from the government telling them what kinds of content they cannot allow on their site and what they need to delete. Rebecca MacKinnon

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship. Harry S Truman

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country. Franklin D. Roosevelt

What makes me angry is when people know what is right but have, over the years, attuned themselves to the fact that what they're doing, stealing money from government, is acceptable. Miriam Defensor-Santiago

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. Larry Flynt

A nation that honors God will always be honored by God. I've seen nations that have dishonored God: God has been taken out of schools, the government, the military; and when you take Him out of a nation, how can you expect God to protect this nation? Nick Vujicic

The duty of government is to leave commerce to its own capital and credit as well as all other branches of business, protecting all in their legal pursuits, granting exclusive privileges to none. Andrew Jackson

Let's not let the government sell us out. Let's fight for net neutrality. Al Franken

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. George Bernard Shaw

I think it is important the communities are listened to and that their voice is heard, particularly with local government boundaries more than parliamentary boundaries, because you are talking very much about communities. It can be a very emotive thing. Nicola Sturgeon

A lot of people don't understand what feminism is. They think it is about advance and success for women, but it's not that at all. It is about power for the female left. And they have this, I think, ridiculous idea that American women are oppressed by the patriarchy and we need laws and government to solve our problems for us. Phyllis Schlafly

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits. James Madison

Good government only happens when the people working in it do their jobs, and do them well. Matthew Lesko

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it. Woodrow Wilson

Just think of what Woodrow Wilson stood for: he stood for world government. He wanted an early United Nations, League of Nations. But it was the conservatives, Republicans, that stood up against him. Ron Paul

But separation of church and state was never meant to separate God and government. Roy Moore

Every friend to the liberty of his country is bound to reflect, and step forward to prevent the dreadful consequences which shall result from a government of events. Henry Knox

Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. Albert Einstein

Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government. Mikhail Gorbachev

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes. Andrew Jackson

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. Thomas Jefferson

The untold secret driving the obstruction to Obama's economic equality agenda is this: The opposition isn't really battling Big Government. The opposition is protecting an economic system that's putting more and more of the earned income out of reach for those aspiring to better themselves. Donna Brazile

I'm eternally grateful to fate and the citizens of Russia that they've trusted me to be the head of the Russian government. Vladimir Putin

We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government. Andrew Jackson

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other. Napoleon Bonaparte

We don't walk. We overeat because we've made it easy to overeat. We have fast-food joints on every corner. By the way, the 'we' is all of us. It's not the government. It's all of us doing this together. Mehmet Oz

Under the new government of the Constitution, beginning in 1789, all of the peacetime measures were repeated: chaplains, prayers, memorials of Thanksgiving, the Northwest Ordinance, funding for the Christian education of Indians. M. Stanton Evans

If our political leaders are to be always a lot of political merchants, they will supply any demand we may create. All we have to do is to establish a steady demand for good government. Lincoln Steffens

If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a 'peace conference', you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes. Joseph Stalin

Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub. Grover Norquist

Americans need never fear their government because of the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation. Gouverneur Morris

We have got to protect privacy rights. We have got to protect our God-given, constitutionally protected civil liberties, and we are not doing that in the federal government. The Department of Homeland Security, as well as the TSA, is a great culprit in being a Gestapo-type organization. Paul Broun

I mean, just because you're a musician doesn't mean all your ideas are about music. So every once in a while I get an idea about plumbing, I get an idea about city government, and they come the way they come. Jerry Garcia

The Tea Party was born out of the disgust many Americans felt early in the financial crisis upon learning that the federal government was even contemplating reducing the principal on some troubled mortgages. Mark Zandi

We must not tolerate oppressive government or industrial oligarchy in the form of monopolies and cartels. Henry A. Wallace

We support too big to fail. We want the government to be able to take down a big bank like JP Morgan and it could be done. We think Dodd-Frank, which we supported parts of, gave the FDIC the authority to take down a big bank. Jamie Dimon

Despite the never-ending debate on the question of the role of government in America, there's been a strong tradition of protecting our undisputed, important natural treasures or taking on great common engineering challenges. Walt Mossberg

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them. Ronald Reagan

I understand why so many Americans are fed up with government. The 112th Congress was almost universally derided as the worst ever. It was the most polarized body since the end of Reconstruction, according to one study, and I grew embarrassed by its partisan bickering, inactivity, and refusal to address the vital challenges facing America. Olympia Snowe

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist. Lysander Spooner

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. Gerald R. Ford

The so-called second New Deal of 1935 - including the Works Progress Administration, Social Security and the Wagner Act legalizing union labor - represented an effort to meet the rising voices demanding a more aggressive government approach to the collapse of national prosperity. Robert Dallek

You can give your Social Security check to any organization, public or private, or to individuals. You can donate it to your favorite political party. You can give the funds to a student scholarship - for your grandchildren, for example - or to somebody who has a medical need. Or you can invest your government check in free enterprise. Mark Skousen

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard

Good schools, good jobs, good government. These are not unreasonable demands. But sadly, some of our people have already lost heart and have left Hawaii to look for these things elsewhere. Linda Lingle

Our government is deeply disordered; its credit is impaired; its debt increasing; its expenditures extravagant and wasteful; its disbursements without efficient accountability; and its taxes (for duties are but taxes) enormous, unequal, and oppressive to the great producing classes of the country. John C. Calhoun

Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. George W. Bush

Criticism of government finds sanctuary in several portions of the 1st Amendment. It is part of the right of free speech. It embraces freedom of the press. Hugo Black

We are descended from a people whose government was founded on liberty; our glorious forefathers of Great Britain made liberty the foundation of everything. That country is become a great, mighty, and splendid nation; not because their government is strong and energetic, but, sir, because liberty is its direct end and foundation. Patrick Henry

In the end, there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is sacred to Native Americans will be determined by the government that has been responsible for doing everything in its power to destroy Native American cultures. Winona LaDuke

I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government. Woody Allen

Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government. Richard M. Nixon

The mistakes made by Congress wouldn't be so bad if the next Congress didn't keep trying to correct them. Cullen Hightower

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference. Thomas Jefferson

It's time to fundamentally change the way that we do business in Washington. To help build a new foundation for the 21st century, we need to reform our government so that it is more efficient, more transparent, and more creative. That will demand new thinking and a new sense of responsibility for every dollar that is spent. Barack Obama

The very first act of the Confederate Government was to send commissioners to Washington to make terms of peace, and to establish relations of amity between the two sections. Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II

Our goal is not to crush the enemy at any price, but to make it realize that it is illegal to take up arms to overthrow a democratically elected government. Jose Eduardo dos Santos

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination. Voltaire

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. Ronald Reagan

Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad. Denis Diderot

Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government. William Lyon Mackenzie King

Trump has emphatically denied ties to Russia - a claim refuted by his Twitter feed and a cursory Google search. Putin says his government had nothing to do with the hack of the DNC computers, even though it carelessly left a trail of crumbs tracing back to his intelligence services. The cunning liar is exploiting the blundering one. Franklin Foer

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal. Franklin D. Roosevelt

Censorship is advertising paid by the government. Federico Fellini

Government should work to insure the rights of the individual, not plot to take them away. Lyn Nofziger

Americans no longer look to government for economic security; rather, they look to their portfolios. Bill Owens

A government of, by and for the people is obligated to conduct the nation's business in a manner that respects dissent. Jim Leach

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost. Barack Obama

It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you. Will Rogers

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants. Herbert Hoover

There are very powerful and wealthy special interests who want to privatize or dismember virtually every function that government now performs, whether it is Social Security, Medicare, public education or the Postal Service. Bernie Sanders

Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us. Leo Tolstoy

Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it. Cullen Hightower

All socialism involves slavery. Herbert Spencer

When government - in pursuit of good intentions - tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost come in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom. Government should be a referee, not an active player. Milton Friedman

Bureaucracy gives birth to itself and then expects maternity benefits. Dale Dauten

But let us remember, at the same time, government is sacred, and not to be trifled with. Jonathan Mayhew

Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests. C. Wright Mills

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Ayn Rand


You can't start with imbalance and end with peace, be that in your own body, in an ecosystem or between a government and its people. What we need to strive for is not perfection, but balance. Ani DiFranco

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

Communism is a hateful thing, and a menace to peace and organized government. Grover Cleveland

Conservatives believe in smaller government and in the power of the electorate. So I think that we're less likely to try to use a dramatic forum to warp people's political views. David Mamet

Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles. Woodrow Wilson

Dr. King's leadership reaffirmed the promise of our democracy: that everyday people, working together, have the power to change our government and our institutions for the better. Maria Cantwell

Zombies let us explore notions of the apocalypse - no water, food, medical care, the government imploding - while letting us sleep at night. Max Brooks

I hate the unfairness of injustice. Anybody who thinks they are better than others or 'chosen' or feel they have an entitlement... be it through monarchy, government or money. I think we are all born the same. We are entitled to an equal shot at life. Liam Cunningham

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth. Abraham Lincoln

The war on drugs has made government more powerful, citizens less free, and hasn't helped users or addicts. Victor Mitchell

The definition of an extreme authoritarian is one who is willing blindly to assume that government accusations are true without any evidence presented or opportunity to contest those accusations. Glenn Greenwald

When the Constitution was written in 1787, there was this supposition that American politics would be above party. The people who would staff the positions in government would have the interests of the country, or at least their states and congressional districts, at heart, and so they wouldn't form permanent political parties. H. W. Brands

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion. Lewis Mumford

It is the government's fundamental duty to ensure the security of every individual citizen. Charles Kennedy

The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power. Andrew Jackson

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it. Will Rogers

I believe I was sent to Washington to fight for and defend our traditional values of smaller government, lower taxes, a strong national defense, and the lives of the unborn. Phil Gingrey

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare. Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government. James K. Polk

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent. Abraham Lincoln

By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. John Maynard Keynes

The Connection Machines owned by the United States government laboratories were made available to me because they were considered impossible to program and there was no great demand for them at that time. Philip Emeagwali

History has shown us that, on extraordinarily rare occasions, it becomes necessary for the federal government to intervene on behalf of individuals whose 14th Amendment rights to legal due process and equal protection may be violated by a state. Michael K. Simpson

The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials. Pope Francis

In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. Martin Van Buren

Every generation has a macabre notion that wars, government prohibition, natural disasters or mankind itself could be the downfall of society and the world as a whole. Lauren DeStefano

I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King my republican feelings and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it. Andrew Jackson

I strongly believe that fundamental science cannot be driven by instructional, industrial, governmental or military pressures. This was the reason why I decided, as far as possible, not to accept money from the government. C. V. Raman

My government will be open. Anyone found guilty of corruption will be dealt with in accordance with the law. If you are corrupt you will have to hang your boots. George Weah

It appears first, that liberty is a natural, and government an adventitious right, because all men were originally free. Thomas Clarkson

Government can provide opportunity. But opportunity means nothing unless people are prepared to seize it. Richard M. Nixon

The Pledge clearly acknowledges the fact that our freedoms in this country come from God, not government. Jay Alan Sekulow

Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom. Friedrich August von Hayek

However difficult it may be to bring it about, some form of world government, with agreed international law and means of enforcing the law, is inevitable. John Boyd Orr

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. Harry S Truman

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government. James Madison

The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing. Herbert Spencer

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate? Will Rogers

The crush of lobbyists on Washington and purchase of the media by corporations has created a big business-run government and a worthless press leaving Americans screwed and ill-informed. Adam McKay

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. Will Rogers

The Small Business Administration was fundamental in helping our company. There's great initiative from the government if you know the right places to look. Kevin Plank

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith. Lord Acton

If I had been elected president in 1948, history would be vastly different. I believe we would have stemmed the growth of Big Government, which had begun with the New Deal and culminated with the Great Society. Strom Thurmond

The only result of our present system - unless we reverse the drift - must be the gradual extension of the fascist sector and the gradual disappearance of the system of free enterprise under a free representative government. John T. Flynn

There are three species of government: republican, monarchical, and despotic. Charles de Secondat

I always believed in burning up the government's political capital, not being Mr Safe Guy, you know? Paul Keating

In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do. Hugo Black

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far, far from it, but there is no free lunch, as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble. Arthur Laffer

The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government. Sam Houston

The U.N.'s impartiality allows it to negotiate and operate in some of the toughest places in the world. And time and again, studies have shown that U.N. peacekeeping is far more effective and done with far less money than what any government can do on its own. Ban Ki-moon

Yes, look, social class is definitely an issue in Britain, it is definitely an issue and I think that most people across the country would sympathise with the idea that there are lots of people with talent and ability all across this country who want to make more of themselves and part of the responsibility of government is to make that happen. Ed Miliband

I think any good government will target on the finishing date, that is, the polling day and make sure that their strategy is strong and in place to get them successfully re-elected. Alexander Downer

We haven't usually had to face the extreme questions about liberty and order because we're not a nation of extremists. We love freedom and good government both. David Ignatius

An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery. Joseph Pulitzer

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end. Herbert Hoover

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets. Ronald Reagan

I am in favor of carrying out the Declaration of Independence to women as well as men. Women having to suffer the burdens of society and government should have their equal rights in it. They do not receive their rights in full proportion. Leland Stanford

In America, we have a government that some people believe is too big and overbearing, yet, when it comes to guns, we might as well have no government at all. David Horsey

The... provisional government unwaveringly believes that it can solve all the present problems together with the broad masses of Ethiopia. However, we can do this only if all the people come out in unison to implement our planned undertakings. Meles Zenawi

It's amazing to me how many people think that voting to have the government give poor people money is compassion. Helping poor and suffering people yourself is compassion. Voting for our government to use guns to give money to help poor and suffering people is immoral, self-righteous, bullying laziness. Penn Jillette

The problem with Russia is not corruption per se, or even Putin per se. Russian government is not corrupt because Vladimir Putin has absolute power. Russian government has been corrupt and will always be as long as anyone has absolute power. Robert Zubrin

Yeah, I think it's an absolute disaster that Australia, the government, allowed kangaroo culling. Steve Irwin

The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people. Hugo Black

Pray for someone else's child, your pastor, the military, the police officers, the firemen, the teachers, the government. There's no end to the ways that you can intervene on behalf of others through prayer. Monica Johnson

A people can prosper under a very bad government and suffer under a very good one, if in the first case the local administration is effective and in the second it is inefficient. Annie Besant

I have established the republic. But today it is not clear whether the form of government is a republic, a dictatorship, or personal rule. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

It is time for the government of China to stop holding innocent religious figures in captivity merely for peacefully protesting China's occupation of Tibet. Sam Brownback

It is not good to have a rule of many. Homer

The Kingdom is the love of God prevailing in politics, in business, in government, in media. It is all the impact of the laws of God creating a social environment where the strong help the weak, where those who have give to those who don't. It's a society where relationships are built on love. Myles Munroe

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped. Hubert H. Humphrey

The government is so out of control. It is so bloated and infested with fraud and deceit and corruption and abuse of power. Ted Nugent

The Government needs to be honest and straight with people. Leo Varadkar

Let those men who still have these misguided ideas, let those men who still have these hallucinations, realize that by anarchism, by dastardly crimes, they cannot bring about good government; let them realize that these methods have not succeeded in any country of the world and are not likely to succeed in India. Muhammad Ali Jinnah

Digital India is the only way for citizen empowerment, which can bring government transparency and accountability to citizens. Safra A. Catz

Every Indian outbreak that I have ever known has resulted from broken promises and broken treaties by the government. Buffalo Bill

Election days come and go. But the struggle of the people to create a government which represents all of us and not just the one percent - a government based on the principles of economic, social, racial and environmental justice - that struggle continues. Bernie Sanders

People try to live within their income so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its income. Robert Half

My brother Bob doesn't want to be in government - he promised Dad he'd go straight. John F. Kennedy

Look at our Lords disciples. One denied Him; one doubted Him; one betrayed Him. If our Lord couldn't have perfection, how are you going to have it in city government? Richard J. Daley

This Bible is for the government of the people, by the people and for the people. John Wycliffe

The world is not going to be saved by legislation. William Howard Taft

I've been blessed with three wonderful careers: motion pictures and television, wife, mother and grandmother... and diplomatic services for the United States government. Shirley Temple

If the Democrats want to insult women by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it. Mike Huckabee

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I'm angry about bankers. About the government. Terry Pratchett

When I first ran for public office, it was with the passion and idealism of a young man who believed that government could help make our lives better, that public service was a calling and that citizenship demanded responsibilities. There was a greater good. James McGreevey

Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln. Will Rogers

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. Edward Abbey

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry. William F. Buckley, Jr.

Government has no other end, but the preservation of property. John Locke

During an economic crisis, what matters is that the government keeps its foot on the accelerator. David Ignatius

The government's job is good governance for everybody. My government will make policies; if you fit into it, come on board, or stay where you are. My job is not to spoon-feed anyone. Narendra Modi

I have been up to see the Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving. Robert E. Lee

Nine out of every 10 large corporations and government agencies have been attacked by computer intruders. Kevin Mitnick

Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

The position the Government finds itself in is not one of constructing a law, but of carrying out a decision given by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Charles Tupper

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us. Colin Powell

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. James Madison


All the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. William Henry Harrison

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. Ronald Reagan

Democracy is a daring concept - a hope that we'll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people. Brian Eno

That no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support. Lysander Spooner

A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion. Hugo Black

It is important for people to be able to read all sides of every question; for a feeling of national unity does not come from one-sided or inadequate information, but from a sense of freedom impartially secured and of opportunity equalized by a just government. Jeannette Rankin

Bonnie and Clyde were almost like a modern-day Robin Hood, stealing 'the government's money.' I think that's a bit of why they were glorified. Lane Garrison

Net neutrality was essential for our economy; it was essential to preserve freedom and openness, both for economic reasons and free speech reasons, and the government had a role in ensuring that Internet freedom was protected. Julius Genachowski

A Supreme Court justice needs to understand that he is not a politician. He needs to understand that the judiciary is a passive branch of government. His decisions should not proactively seek to set policy. Thomas Rex Lee

Despite the increase in world attention toward Sudan in the past months, the genocide in Darfur has continued without any serious attempt by the Sudanese government to do what governments primarily exist to do, protect their citizens. Tom Allen

Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. Ayn Rand

Today it is evident that we have two political parties: the Tax and Spenders and the No-Tax and Spenders. Neither party is fiscally conservative. Is there no room at the inn for an honest conservative? A conservative who makes the case for smaller government on its merits and not just as the fallback option when fiscal bankruptcy threatens? Alex Tabarrok

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

If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth. George Osborne

We all want prosperity, but not at the expense of liberty. Poverty is not as great a danger to liberty as is wealth, with its corrupting, demoralizing influences. Let us never have a Government at Washington owing its retention to the power of the millionaires rather than to the will of millions. Joseph Pulitzer

Chinese citizens have never had the right to really express their opinions; in the constitution it says you can, but in the real world it is more dangerous. In the west people think it's a right they're born with. Here it's a right given by the government, and one that's not really practised. Ai Weiwei

Students can spend their money better than government can. It should not require a federal loan and decades of debt for students to get a college degree. Price limits access - plain and simple. Rick Scott

If somebody invented cigarettes today, the government would not legalize them. Loni Anderson

Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only to what it should be, as the egg is to the fowl; we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. Abraham Lincoln

Government is the ultimate monopoly. And monopolies, as any economist will tell you, often breed complacency and a lack of innovation. Gavin Newsom

When businesses face tough times, one of the first items they cut is overhead expenses. The government should do the same. Byron Dorgan

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own. Joe Biden

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern. Lord Acton

There is no reason to have problems between country and country, between government and government, when there is a separation of powers. Ricardo Lagos

We believe, as our founders did, that 'the pursuit of happiness' depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government. Paul Ryan

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply, majoritarian, absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended. Barack Obama

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. Jonathan Swift

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals. Bono

There is no greater example of government overreach and unrestrained liberalism than 'Obamacare.' It is so deeply flawed and such a clear and present threat to our economic stability that there is no way to fix it. Tommy Thompson

How does it become a man to behave towards the American government today? I answer, that he cannot without disgrace be associated with it. Henry David Thoreau

The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries. John Adams

I know that a prime minister of Canada needs to be deeply respectful of the other levels of government - whether it be municipal, provincial, or even nation-to-nation relationships with aboriginal governments. Justin Trudeau

I believe that a government has only one religion - India first. A government has only one holy book - our Constitution. A government has only one kind of devotion - towards nation. Narendra Modi

In recent times, European nations, with the use of gunpowder and other technical improvements in warfare, controlled practically the whole world. One, the British Empire, brought under one government a quarter of the earth and its inhabitants. John Boyd Orr

Technology has enabled government to have investigative and situational awareness on a scale and scope that were science fiction when the Stasi shut its doors. Yochai Benkler

'Scandal' has always lived in this dark place with this idea that Washington is filled with this underbelly of monsters, that if the real world understood how dark, twisted and corrupt it really was, they would never agree with our government or want to be part of it. It's been kind of fun to live in that world. It felt like a fictional world. Shonda Rhimes

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself. Alexander Hamilton

Unfortunately, corruption is widespread in government agencies and public enterprises. Our political system promotes nepotism and wasting money. This has undermined our legal system and confidence in the functioning of the state. One of the consequences is that many citizens don't pay their taxes. George Papandreou

A republican government can only be supported by virtue; and the end of all our legislation should be to encourage our fellow citizens in its daily practice. John Tyler

Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it. Richard Lamm

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy. Thomas Jefferson

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly. Alexander Hamilton

I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less. Stephen Breyer

Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule. Gerald R. Ford

The world runs on individuals pursuing their self interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didn't construct his theory under order from a, from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didn't revolutionize the automobile industry that way. Milton Friedman

If it were not for the government, we should have nothing to laugh at in France. Nicolas Chamfort

Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for. Will Rogers

And the people who live in the southern part of my state do not have a secure environment. To wit, there are signs that the government put up that say, 'Warning. You are in a drug smuggling area and a human smuggling area.' John McCain

You can't fall back on the private sector and say, 'You take care of the nation's banking system.' That's a fundamental function of the government, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and the FDIC, etc. All of those agencies have a major role to play there. Dick Cheney

One of the cries from the people was, don't forget us. They have a long road ahead of them. Operation Blessing has found those little fishing towns. They will not be getting what other towns are getting from the government. Connie Sellecca

I am almost inclined to say that India will get Dominion Responsible Government the day the Hindus and Muslims are united. Muhammad Ali Jinnah

A government of laws, and not of men. John Adams

It's hard to make something as large as a government change. It's a little bit like building the transcontinental railroad. Tim O'Reilly

It urges policy makers and the Supreme Court to make the mistake of curing what could prove to be an isolated problem by disarming the government of its principal weapon to stop future terrorist attacks. John Yoo

Most of those coming from the mainland are very destitute, almost naked. I am trying to find places for those able to work, and provide for them as best I can, so as to lighten the burden on the Government as much as possible, while at the same time they learn to respect themselves by earning their own living. Harriet Tubman

Our government shouldn't tell us where to travel and where not to travel. Jeff Flake

What we have to do is strike a balance between the idea that government should do everything and the idea, the belief, that government ought to do nothing. Strike a balance. Barbara Jordan

We are expected to believe that anyone who objects to the Department of Homeland Security or the USA Patriot Act is a terrorist, and that the only way to preserve our freedom is to hand it over to the government for safekeeping. L. Neil Smith

The United States are a political state, or organized society, whose end is government, for the security, welfare, and happiness of all who live under its protection. William H. Seward

We have a tendency to sugar coat the Civil Rights movement by showing arm in arm and everyone singing 'Kumbaya'. We don't really always show the resistance from the government, the resistance from the status quo, from the majority to silence the movement. Nate Parker

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. James Madison

The banking collapse was caused, more than anything, by bad government policy and the total failure of bad regulation, rather than by greed. Nigel Farage

Local government in England is simply too big. Our lowest tier serves an average population of 118,500, while in the U.S. and across continental Europe the figures are more like several thousand. Geoff Mulgan

Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success. Walter Bagehot

This used to be a government of checks and balances. Now it's all checks and no balances. Gracie Allen

With respect to sticking accelerator pedals, we failed to connect the dots between problems in Europe and problems in the United States because the European situation related primarily to right-hand-drive vehicles. Toyota will increase its outreach to government agencies charged with protecting the safety of motorists and passengers. Akio Toyoda

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. Ayn Rand

I understand how bureaucracies work. And that's important because our government has become a vast, huge, bloated, corrupt bureaucracy. Carly Fiorina

At the end of the day, every member of the conservative movement, from our political commentators and thinkers to our elected officials, share an important and common purpose in advancing the cause of liberty, reigning in a bloated federal government, and defending our traditional family values. Phil Gingrey

Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government. B. R. Ambedkar

The presidency is the most visible thread that runs through the tapestry of the American government. More often than not, for good or for ill, it sets the tone for the other branches and spurs the expectations of the people. Mike Pence

It is not the function of the government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. Robert Jackson

No genuinely avant-garde artist should ever be on the government dole. Camille Paglia

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men. Franklin D. Roosevelt

European values, civil rights, freedom of speech, freedom of informatio,n and freedom of assembly are being violated by Spain's central government. Carles Puigdemont

There is only one kind of freedom and that's individual liberty. Our lives come from our creator and our liberty comes from our creator. It has nothing to do with government granting it. Ron Paul

We are losing sight of civility in government and politics. Debate and dialogue is taking a back seat to the politics of destruction and anger and control. Dogma has replaced thoughtful discussion between people of differing views. James McGreevey

I don't think anybody should be expanding Medicaid. I think it's a mistake to create new and more expensive entitlement programs when we can't afford the ones we've got today. We've got to stop this culture of government dependence. Bobby Jindal

It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it. George Washington

The No. 1 purpose of the federal government is national defense. Robert Zubrin

The September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon prompted a fundamental shift in the American government's approach to Islamic terrorism. Amy Waldman

Taking privacy cues from the federal government is - to say the least - ironic, considering today's Orwellian level of surveillance. At virtually any given time outside of one's own home, an American citizen can reasonably assume his movements and actions are being monitored by something, by somebody, somewhere. Bob Barr

The Iraqi government will try and retake some of the cities have that been captured by ISIS. That means the Shiite government dropping bombs on civilian areas, on Sunni cities. There will likely be a response with car bombings here in Baghdad, and this could be a long fight. Richard Engel

This election presents a stark choice - we can continue down the road of the Obama Democrats, more and more spending, debt and government control of the economy, or we can return to the founding principles of our nation - free markets, fiscal responsibility and individual liberty. Ted Cruz

The honest man might observe... that no one gets something for nothing; that politicians go in poor and go out rich; that the Government screws up everything it touches; and that the Will to Believe is best confined to the Religious Venue, as to practice it elsewhere is just too damned expensive. David Mamet

I had three attorneys dedicated solely to find the statistic of the number of missing Native American women on reservations. Any reservation, not just 'Wind River.' They don't exist. The federal government, which is responsible for the reservations, don't keep those stats. Taylor Sheridan

The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. Barack Obama

Western civilization is the most successful civilization the world has ever seen. And some of the reasons for that is it's borrowed from other cultures along the way, back to Mosaic law, the Greek age of reason, Roman law and the Roman order of government, and the Republican form of government, by the way that we're guaranteed in our constitution. Steve King

I believe to go along to get along is unpatriotic. I believe that agreeing with your government on everything they do is unpatriotic. I believe a patriot stands up and holds your government's feet to the fire. Because if you do that, you will get good government. Jesse Ventura

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Real estate deals a lot with the government. It isn't like manufacturing, logistics, home appliances or the auto sector, which deal with consumers. Wang Jianlin

We all learn in school that the judicial, legislative and executive branches of government must check and balance each other. But other non state institutions must participate in this important system of checks and balances as well. These checking institutions include the academy, the media, religious institutions and NGOs. Alan Dershowitz

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. James Russell Lowell

The principle of academic freedom is designed to make sure that powers outside the university, including government and corporations, are not able to control the curriculum or intervene in extra-mural speech. Judith Butler

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. Gilbert K. Chesterton

Every good government is made up of good families. The unit of good government is the family, and anything that tends to destroy the family is perfectly devilish and infamous. Robert Green Ingersoll

Our country, if you read the 'Federalist Papers,' is about disagreement. It's about pitting faction against faction, divided government, checks and balances. The hero in American political tradition is the man who stands up to the mob - not the mob itself. Jonah Goldberg

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong. Wendell Willkie

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. Winston Churchill

If you look at things that really affect people's lives - sport, the arts, charities - they were always at the back of the queue for government money - health, social security, defence, pensions were all way ahead. And each of those areas - sports, the arts, the lottery - got relatively petty cash from the government. John Major

Today 23 years ago dear Grandmama died. I wonder what she would have thought of a Labour Government. King George V

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government. Thomas Sowell

The women of the country have the power in their own hands, in spite of the law and the government being altogether of the male order. Victoria Woodhull

Big and oppressive government has long been the enemy of freedom, something black Americans know all too well. Rand Paul

I think governments can't do much. Dalai Lama

By ensuring that no one in government has too much power, the Constitution helps protect ordinary Americans every day against abuse of power by those in authority. John Roberts

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself. Isaac Asimov

The fact that we have one out of four people in this state on Medicaid is unsustainable; it's unaffordable, and we need to create jobs in this state, not more government programs to cover people. Matt Bevin

A government should not function based on the pressures of some or others. It should try to adapt a mix of measures that fits every context and generates the appropriate steps forward. Laura Chinchilla

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government. Mackenzie King

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government. Benjamin Franklin

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. Dwight D. Eisenhower

I've lived in Washington now for 44 years, and that's a lot of folly to witness up close. Whatever confidence and optimism I felt towards the central government when I got here on January 1, 1970 has pretty much dissipated at the hands of the government. George Will

Gun control means control. It means control for the government and the government starts controlling the people. Luke Scott

History has shown that a government's redistribution of shrinking wealth, in preference to a private sector's creation of new sources of it, can prove more destructive than even the most deadly enemy. Victor Davis Hanson

To restore the trust of the people, we must reform the way the government operates. Arnold Schwarzenegger

The essence of good government is trust. Kathleen Sebelius

By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more. Albert Camus

The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other. Walter Bagehot

A good government remains the greatest of human blessings and no nation has ever enjoyed it. Dean Inge

I can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say I'm for limited government, but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies. Tomi Lahren

The forefathers of the United States were children of religious bigotry and persecution, and, as a result, fled Britain to create a new approach to life and government. They valued intellect and education. In fact, they outlined the principles of the United States' democracy to establish intellectual freedom from the Church. Mike Medavoy

I have taken my flight in the region of eagles; when I alight, it must be on a rock, and that rock must be a constitutional government, of which I shall be the head so long as I shall be among men. Toussaint Louverture

If we speak calmly, in a businesslike fashion, let me draw your attention to the fact that Russia supplies arms to the legitimate government of Syria in full compliance with the norms of international law. We are not breaching any rules and norms. Vladimir Putin

The nominal budget is a poor indicator of the impact of government outlays and revenues. William Vickrey

The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil. James Monroe

When we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren't allowed to have the same kind of sports teams - I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them - there is a role to play. Betsy DeVos

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). Abraham Lincoln

Under the Articles of Confederation, the national government had the power to issue commands to the several sovereign states, but it had no authority to govern individuals directly. David Souter

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. H. L. Mencken

I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building. Edward Snowden


If there's anything a public servant hates to do it's something for the public. Kin Hubbard

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government. Henry Ward Beecher

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government. George Washington

If the Chinese will not learn the true principles of government, all else will be useless. Knowledge is power, and although a country may be weak, still, if it possess but a modicum of knowledge, the enemy will not be able to completely overthrow it; although that country may be in danger, the race will not be extirpated. Zhang Zhidong

The government of the United States doesn't want peace. It wants to exploit its system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war. It wants peace, but what's happening in Iraq? What happened in Lebanon? Palestine? What's happening? What's happened over the last hundred years in Latin America and in the world? Hugo Chavez

In the 1970s, Safari Club International asked the federal government to approve its import of 1,125 not-yet-killed trophies of 40 endangered species, including gorillas, orangutans and tigers, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Lydia Millet

Government has a habit of blaming the private sector for its own failings while taking credit for advances we in fact owe to the private sector. Thomas Woods

It has always been the role of government to help solve problems, including and especially health crises. Obesity is a health epidemic across our country, and we have a responsibility as a government and a society to do all we can to promote good nutrition and healthy eating so we can reverse this alarming trend. Richard J. Codey

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it. Confucius

For over 30 years, the IRA showed that the British government could not rule Ireland on its own terms. Gerry Adams

I was eight when independence happened. I remember my mum and dad getting dressed up to go to the independence concert to go listen to Bob Marley. Independence was such a wonderful time; we had so many expectations of the kind of country we would become. The vision of the government then was a wonderful vision. Petina Gappah

Optimism is the ultimate definition of a leader. A leader has to look optimistically at what is ahead while not ignoring the challenges that must be overcome. Those challenges are in government, politics, world leadership, and even in community life. Linda McMahon

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

The building up of a new, far-reaching system of inspection on the question of equal pay, with power to investigate every business in the United States, administered by a colossal new government agency with vast enforcement powers, would not be helpful to women, as far as I can see. Alice Paul

We are free today because we are the stronger; we will be slaves again when the government becomes the stronger. Toussaint Louverture

The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech. Anthony Kennedy

It was settled by the Constitution, the laws, and the whole practice of the government that the entire executive power is vested in the President of the United States. Andrew Jackson

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The important consequences to the American States from this Declaration of Independence, considered as the ground and foundation of a future government, naturally suggest the propriety of proclaiming it in such a manner as that the people may be universally informed of it. John Hancock

I'm sure that the standard of public morality we've helped build will force government in Canada to approve complete health insurance. Tommy Douglas

We have a complex system of government. You have to teach it to every generation. Sandra Day O'Connor

I hope the Icelandic government grants me political asylum. Bobby Fischer

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse. James Madison

Conservatism is about the basic rights of individuals. God created us. As far as the government goes, the Founding Fathers based the Constitution off of Christian values. It goes hand-in-hand. As far as the Republican Party? I felt connected to it because individual freedom should not be legislated by the federal government. Joe Wurzelbacher

The concept of active cooperation has taken the place of opposition to the new form of government and of dreamy resignation entranced with the beauty of times past. Gustav Stresemann

No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. Benjamin Harrison

Socialism violates at least three of the Ten Commandments: It turns government into God, it legalizes thievery and it elevates covetousness. Discussions of income inequality, after all, aren't about prosperity but about petty spite. Why should you care how much money I make, so long as you are happy? Ben Shapiro

As far as your personal goals are and what you actually want to do with your life, it should never have to do with the government. You should never depend on the government for your retirement, your financial security, for anything. Drew Carey

The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy. Milton Friedman

The checks and balances is a way to prevent government from either devolving into an autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality. Beau Willimon

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse. Ronald Reagan

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next. Abraham Lincoln

You have to support the government, not to me personally; I do not want anyone cultivating loyalty to me. I don't like that. Rodrigo Duterte

Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them. Bill Gates

The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact. John Quincy Adams

Government doesn't have a high tolerance for failure. John Hickenlooper

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable. H. L. Mencken

We gotta get Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership. It makes no sense that these are owned by the government and have been controlled by the government for as long as they have. Steve Mnuchin

I am sure of my ability to form a good government. Isaac Herzog

Are we still a country that takes risks, that innovates, that believes anything is possible? Or are we a country that is resigned to whatever liberty the government decides to dish out? Mitch McConnell

While the public school rewards failure by throwing more government money at failing school systems, the voucher system does the opposite. Fabrizio Moreira

Financial crises require governments. Timothy Geithner

Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men. Gerald R. Ford

Embryonic stem cell research is legal in America, and nothing in the administration's current policy affects that legality; 400 lines are currently being used to conduct embryonic stem cell research, both in the private sector and by the Federal Government. Roger Wicker

If we, as individuals, want to keep control of our democracy - rather than have a government paid for by corporate interest checks - then we have to fight back now and make sure our system reflects the belief that people, not corporations, control our democracy. Michael Bennet

A good government implies two things; first, fidelity to the objects of the government; secondly, a knowledge of the means, by which those objects can be best attained. Joseph Story

That government is best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau

If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government. Barry Goldwater

The soviet people want full-blooded and unconditional democracy. Mikhail Gorbachev

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. Alexander Woollcott

Poor people cannot rely on the government to come to help you in times of need. You have to get your education. Then nobody can control your destiny. Charles Barkley

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. Thomas Jefferson

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you've got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I'm not sure any country, either the United States or I don't hear of anyone else, who's willing to take on that responsibility. Colin Powell

All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion. Narendra Modi

Freedom is our most precious commodity and if we are not eternally vigilant, government will take it all away. Individual freedom demands individual responsibility. Lyn Nofziger

We're facing a natural disaster in the middle of an economic disaster. The federal government has to balance its budget the way our families do. Nan Hayworth

The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people. Elena Kagan

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it. Harry S Truman

The greatest bulwark against an overreaching government, as tyrants know, is a religious population. That is because religious people form communities of interest adverse to government control of their lives; religious communities rely on their families and each other rather than an overarching government utilizing force. Ben Shapiro

Building sustainable cities - and a sustainable future - will need open dialogue among all branches of national, regional and local government. And it will need the engagement of all stakeholders - including the private sector and civil society, and especially the poor and marginalized. Ban Ki-moon

We need an equal opportunity society, one in which government does not see its job as picking winners and losers. Where do you go if you want special favors? Government. Where do you go if you want a tax break? Government. Where do you go if you want a handout? Government. This must stop. Bobby Jindal

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. Ludwig von Mises

The Government of the absolute majority instead of the Government of the people is but the Government of the strongest interests; and when not efficiently checked, it is the most tyrannical and oppressive that can be devised. John C. Calhoun

We have to be bold in our national ambitions. First, we must win the fight against poverty within the next decade. Second, we must improve moral standards in government and society to provide a strong foundation for good governance. Third, we must change the character of our politics to promote fertile ground for reforms. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo

People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests. James Bovard

What the world needs is a small, compact, flexible fusion technology that could make electricity where and when it is needed. The existing fusion program is leading to a huge source of centralized power, at a price that nobody except a government can afford. Freeman Dyson

America traditionally represents the greatest possibility of someone's going from nothing to something. Why? In theory, if not practice, the government stays out of the way and lets individuals take risks and reap rewards or accept the consequences of failure. We call this capitalism - or, at least, we used to. Larry Elder

I don't think anybody has ever been able to live up to what they promised. I don't know a government that has ever been successful at that because once they get into power, things change and the world is controlled also by business now. Hugh Masekela

The budget doesn't have much control over the government. Then again, the government doesn't have much control over the budget. P. J. O'Rourke

The impersonal hand of government can never replace the helping hand of a neighbor. Hubert H. Humphrey

I only ask of the government to be treated as all other men are treated. Chief Joseph

I am upset and completely disappointed in the government, the millionaires and billionaires in the U.S. See what's happening to the country? Look at all the health problems, the economy, the recession and crime. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

A government is for the benefit of all the people. William Howard Taft

The wall is not a bilateral issue. It's not something that we discuss with the American government. Every country has a sovereign right to protect its borders the best way that they see fit. Luis Videgaray Caso

I am constitutionally competent to contest the elections. Benazir Bhutto

Since most American students cannot simply pay their full tuition out of pocket, financing a college education often takes the form of loans, both private and from the government. Charles B. Rangel

The worst thing a government can do now in Spain is to do nothing. Mariano Rajoy

In a general sense, I think it's bad to bring too much money into climbing, since it takes away a little from the beauty of the mountains. But at the same time, I can't blame the Nepali government - or the Indian, Pakistani or Chinese, depending on where you're climbing - from wanting to capitalize on foreign climbers. Alex Honnold

China's government is so strong on investment, so strong on exporting, but they're too weak on domestic consumption. Jack Ma

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy. Woodrow Wilson

If a kid is being bullied at school, my advice to them is to punch the bully in the face. The government can create as many boards, commissions, and informational sessions on sensitivity that it wants. The fact is, we still have bullies, and we still have victims who are trained not to stand up for themselves. Joe Wurzelbacher

When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads. Ron Paul

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another. Richard M. Nixon

While starving refugees in Homs were providing target practice for government snipers, Bashar al-Assad's strongest international backer was in Sochi, at the Iceberg Skating Palace, visibly moved, smiling with deep satisfaction, as the Russians beautifully glided and leaped their way to the gold medal in the team event. George Packer

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul. George Bernard Shaw

Government's first duty and highest obligation is public safety. Arnold Schwarzenegger

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government. William Howard Taft

I am calling upon all of you to come out and fight corruption and agree to support the government in fighting corruption as our first priority. Mwai Kibaki

Conventional wisdom on government's role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive. Paul Ryan

Many of the benefits from keeping terrorism fear levels high are obvious. Private corporations suck up massive amounts of Homeland Security cash as long as that fear persists, while government officials in the National Security and Surveillance State can claim unlimited powers and operate with unlimited secrecy and no accountability. Glenn Greenwald

The first duty of a government is to maintain law and order so that the life, property, and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State. Muhammad Ali Jinnah

I know the government needs to ensure economic growth... we just hope it takes care of the environment, too. Ma Jun

The government must give proper weight to both keeping America safe from terrorists and protecting Americans' privacy. But when Americans lack the most basic information about our domestic surveillance programs, they have no way of knowing whether we're getting that balance right. This lack of transparency is a big problem. Al Franken

The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire. Joseph Sobran

Unity and secularism will be the motto of the government. We can't afford divisive polity in India. Manmohan Singh

When I was boxing I made five million and wound up broke, owing the government a million. Joe Louis

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties. Theresa May

The first lesson in civics is that efficient government begins at home. Charles Evans Hughes

From the late 1940s, into and through the '50s, there developed a complex interaction between federal government, state and local government, real-estate interests, commercial interests and court decisions, which had the effect of undermining the mass transit system across the country. Noam Chomsky

The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection. John Marshall

I stand today on this floor to appeal for protection from the strong arm of the government for her loyal children, irrespective of color and race, who are citizens of the southern states, and particularly of the State of Georgia. Hiram Rhodes Revels

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Louis D. Brandeis

Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men. B. R. Ambedkar

The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government. Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people. Tom Clancy

We have lost that which has made us great over the generations, and that is the sense of individual and personal responsibility that we can come up, we can pursue our dreams and our aspirations and we won't be blocked by government regulation, by the inability to get a loan as a small business to make our dreams come true. Jon Huntsman, Jr.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. Thomas Jefferson

The government is us; we are the government, you and I. Theodore Roosevelt

The government cannot overcome bad parenting. What our leaders can do is publicly condemn irresponsible parental behavior in vivid terms. Bill O'Reilly

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together. James Madison

Politics and government are certainly among the most important of practical human interests. P. T. Barnum

Since no one but you can know what's best for you, government control can't make your life better. Harry Browne

On the acquisition of Louisiana, in the year 1803, the attention of the government of the United States, was early directed towards exploring and improving the new territory. Meriwether Lewis

I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. William Henry Harrison

America gains most when individuals have great freedom to pursue personal goals without undue government interference. Sylvia Earle

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

This Government has found occasion to express, in a friendly spirit, but with much earnestness, to the Government of the Czar, its serious concern because of the harsh measures now being enforced against the Hebrews in Russia. Benjamin Harrison

I went from being a kid who loved to perform magic tricks to becoming the world's most notorious hacker, feared by corporations and the government. Kevin Mitnick

Our earliest evidence of government, in the ruins of Babylon and Egypt, shows nothing but ziggurats and pyramids of wasted taxpayer money, the TARP funds and shovel-ready stimulus programs of their day. P. J. O'Rourke