GOVERNMENT QUOTES VIII

quotations about government

A general government shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all the local governments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those matters which exclusively concern them.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

speech at Columbus, September 16, 1859

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

EDMUND BURKE

second speech on Conciliation with America, 1775

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

THOMAS JEFFERSON

letter to John Norvell, June 11, 1807

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Government is like a sincere alcoholic, who does not want to cause irreparable damage to his liver and yet cannot give up excessive drinking.

N. S. SAKSENA

Terrorism History and Facets


When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.

LAWRENCE LESSIG

keynote address at the "One Planet, One Net" symposium, October 10, 1998

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It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people can't be governed at all.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

No Country for Old Men

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A civil servant doesn't make jokes.

EUGENE IONESCO

The Killer

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Those who love their country never wish to rule it.

ABRAHAM MILLER

Unmoral Maxims

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But whether we've won or lost, we need to trust that the government is acting for the (politically) correct reasons: liberal, if liberals have won; conservative, if conservatives have won; libertarian, if libertarians have won. We need to believe that the government is tracking the sort of interests it was intended to track.... When the actions of government conflict with those expectations, we will look beyond trust, for other reasons, to see whether they might explain the puzzle. Other reasons, such as money in the wrong places. When we find it--when we see that money was in the wrong place--it will affect us. It will weaken our trust in government. It will undermine our motivation to engage.

LAWRENCE LESSIG

Republic

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All kings is mostly rapscallions.

MARK TWAIN

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws, would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

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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

attributed, The Age of Turbulence

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Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, governments tend more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class--whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.

FRANK HERBERT

Children of Dune

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Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

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The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.

MARGARET THATCHER

Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

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The best discharge of government is government of our selves, and there we must begin.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

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The grossest, the cruelest, the most selfish, the most easily pervertible and perverted thing in this world, is government.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

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Governments have a tendency not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

RONALD REAGAN

attributed, Presidential Wit and Wisdom

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

WILLIAM BEVERIDGE

Social Insurance and Allied Services


The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher