Motivational Quotes

Government

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

- Jefferson, Thomas

Best Quotes about Government

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

Wallis, W. Allen

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

Friedman, Milton

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

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

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

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

Kocher, Gerhard

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Roosevelt, Theodore

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

George W. Bush

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

Durant, William J.

10.

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

Voltaire

11.

An ambassador is an honest person sent to lie abroad for their country.

Wotton, Sir Henry

12.

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

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

13.

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

Kempton, Murray

14.

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

Gladstone, William E.

15.

The constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

Douglas, William O.

16.

The art of government is not to let me grow stale.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

17.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

18.

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

19.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

20.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

21.

In our consumer confidence surveys, we ask people whether they think government economic policy is good, fair, or poor. Increasingly, the answer we get is just plain laughter.

Schmiedeskamp, Jay

22.

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

Gardner, John W.

23.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

24.

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.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe

25.

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

26.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Twain, Mark

27.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

28.

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

Jackson, Andrew

29.

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

Reston, James

30.

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

Hume, David

31.

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.

32.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

Kennedy, John F.

33.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

34.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

35.

Beaverbrook is so pleased to be in the government that he is like the town tart who finally married the Mayor.

Baxter, Beverley

36.

After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.

Fred Thompson

37.

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.

John Kenneth Galbraith

38.

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

Cousin, Victor

39.

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

40.

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

41.

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

42.

I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

Rostand, Jean

43.

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

Lawson, Nigel

44.

Any cook should be able to run the country.