Motivational Quotes

Government

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

- Jefferson, Thomas

Best Quotes about Government

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

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

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

Einstein, Albert

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

Updike, John

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

In the councils of a state, the question is not so much, what ought to be done? As, what can be done?

Proverb, French

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

Caldwell, John S.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

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

10.

The government is huge, stupid, greedy and makes nosy, officious and dangerous intrusions into the smallest corners of life -- this much we can stand. But the real problem is that government is boring. We could cure or mitigate the other ills Washington visits on us if we could only bring ourselves to pay attention to Washington itself. But we cannot.

O'Rourke, P. J.

11.

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

12.

A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.

Alcott, Amos Bronson

13.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

Raleigh, Sir Walter

14.

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

15.

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

Dulles, John Foster

16.

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

17.

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

Durant, William J.

18.

Well, fancy giving money to the Government! Might as well have put it down the drain.

Herbert, A. P.

19.

The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.

Shaw, George Bernard

20.

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

21.

It is easy to rule over the good.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

22.

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

23.

Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.

Carlyle, Thomas

24.

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

Reston, James

25.

It is function of government to invent philosophies to explain the demands of its own convenience.

Kempton, Murray

26.

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

Baluch, Joy

27.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

28.

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

Hospers, John

29.

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

30.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

31.

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

Friedman, Milton

32.

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

Reagan, Ronald

33.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Voltaire

34.

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

35.

To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.

Lawson, Nigel

36.

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

Mirabeau, Comte De

37.

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

Gladstone, William E.

38.

Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both.

Shaw, George Bernard

39.

Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.

Crockett, Davy

40.

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.

Bastiat, Frederic

41.

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

George W. Bush

42.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

43.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

44.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

45.

The government can destroy wealth but it cannot create wealth, which is the product of labor and management working with creation.

Murray, Bill

46.

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

47.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

48.

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

49.

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.

Reston, James

50.

Any cook should be able to run the country.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich