Motivational Quotes

Government

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

- George W. Bush

Best Quotes about Government

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

Hume, David

Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.

Dulles, John Foster

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

It is doubtful that the government knows much more than the public does about how government [Economic] policies will work.

Wallis, W. Allen

Believe me - the Government will help you anytime it needs you.

Kocher, Gerhard

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

The whole duty of government is to prevent crime and to preserve contracts.

Melbourne, Lord

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.

Mencken, H. L.

10.

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

Limbaugh, Rush

11.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

12.

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

Jackson, Andrew

13.

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

Bunting, Basil

14.

The worst thing in the world next to anarchy, is government.

Beecher, Henry Ward

15.

Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.

Updike, John

16.

There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the money touch, but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.

Roosevelt, Theodore

17.

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

18.

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

Bob Wells

19.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

20.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

21.

Government can be bigger than any of the players on the field as a referee, but it has no right to become one of the players.

Igleheart, Austin

22.

Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

Truman, Harry S

23.

No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.

Tuchman, Barbara

24.

The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.

Themistocles

25.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

26.

The greater the hold of government upon the life of the individual citizen, the greater the risk of war.

Hospers, John

27.

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

Gardner, John W.

28.

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.

Mills, C. Wright

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

The ship of state is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.

Reston, James

34.

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate government action.

Russell, Bertrand

35.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

36.

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

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

37.

Public instruction should be the first object of government.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

38.

What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government.

President Barack Obama

39.

Any government is potentially the worst client in the world you could ever possibly want to have.

Thomas Heatherwick

40.

The government must always be a step ahead of the popular movement.

Boytzwnburg, Count

41.

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

Bismarck, Otto Von

42.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

43.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

Reagan, Ronald

44.

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

45.

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

Friedman, Milton

46.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.

Locke, John

47.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

48.

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

49.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

50.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

William H. Borah