Motivational Quotes

Government

You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception.

- Cousin, Victor

Best Quotes about Government

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Jefferson, Thomas

Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved -- commitment to a scenario.

Baudrillard, Jean

To rule is not so much a question of the heavy hand as the firm seat.

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principles.

Durant, William J.

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

H. L. Mencken

I say to myself that I mustn't let myself be cut off in there, and yet the moment I enter my bag is taken out of my hand, I'm pushed in, shepherded, nursed and above all cut off, alone. Whitehall envelops me.

Crossman, Richard

Of the best rulers, The people only know that they exist; the next best they love and praise the next they fear; and the next they revile. When they do not command the people's faith, some will lose faith in them, and then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people all remark, We have done it ourselves.

Lao-Tzu

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.

Jackson, Andrew

It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.

Gladstone, William E.

10.

That state is best ordered when the wicked have no command, and the good have.

Pittacus

11.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

12.

Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

Washington, George

13.

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Chapman, John Jay

14.

In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man.

Tolstoy, Count Leo

15.

Being nice to governments doesn't work, they are such lying bastards.

Baluch, Joy

16.

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

Jefferson, Thomas

17.

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

Harry S Truman

18.

The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries itself the causes of its destruction.

Rousseau, Jean Jacques

19.

Thou camest out of thy mother's belly without government, thou hast liv'd hitherto without government, and thou mayst be carried to thy long home without government, when it shall please the Lord. How many people in this world live without government, yet do well enough, and are well look'd upon?

Cervantes, Miguel De

20.

It is easy to rule over the good.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

21.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Johnson, Samuel

22.

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

Friedman, Milton

23.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

24.

The point to remember is what government gives it must first take away

Caldwell, John S.

25.

In a healthy nation there is a kind of dramatic balance between the will of the people and the government, which prevents its degeneration into tyranny.

Einstein, Albert

26.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.

Churchill, Winston

27.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Franklin, Benjamin

28.

When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.

President Barack Obama

29.

For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.

Bob Wells

30.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

31.

We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

32.

You know what's interesting about Washington? It's the kind of place where second-guessing has become second nature.

George W. Bush

33.

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

Jackson, Andrew

34.

Generosity is a part of my character, and I therefore hasten to assure this Government that I will never make an allegation of dishonesty against it wherever a simple explanation of stupidity will suffice.

Lever, Leslie Baron

35.

If you join government, calmly make your contribution and move on. Don't go along to get along; do your best and when you have to -- and you will -- leave, and be something else.

Noonan, Peggy

36.

Do not ask what the Government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.

Kocher, Gerhard

37.

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

Jefferson, Thomas

38.

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. [The Motto Of The U.S. Postal Service]

Herodotus

39.

To administer is to govern: to govern is to reign. That is the essence of the problem.

Mirabeau, Comte De

40.

You could afford your house without the government if it weren't for the government.

Limbaugh, Rush

41.

But their determination to banish fools foundered ultimately in the installation of absolute idiots.

Bunting, Basil

42.

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