Motivational Quotes

Government

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.

Best Quotes about Government

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

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

When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects,this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.

Heinlein, Robert

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Chapman, John Jay

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

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

Wallis, W. Allen

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

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

Bastiat, Frederic

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

Mirabeau, Comte De

10.

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

Bob Wells

11.

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

12.

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

Baluch, Joy

13.

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

14.

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

Friedman, Milton

15.

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

16.

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

Updike, John

17.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

18.

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

Bunting, Basil

19.

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

Limbaugh, Rush

20.

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

21.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

Richard M. Nixon

22.

The whole country is one vast insane asylum and they're letting the worst patients run the place.

Welch, Robert

23.

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

24.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

25.

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

26.

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

27.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

Updike, John

28.

It is easy to rule over the good.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

29.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

30.

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

Einstein, Albert

31.

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

Baxter, Beverley

32.

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

33.

Our Congress is the finest body of men money can buy.

Amsterdam, Maury

34.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

35.

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

Hospers, John

36.

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

Fred Thompson

37.

The auditor is a watchdog and not a bloodhound.

Topes, Lord Justice

38.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

39.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

40.

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

41.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

H. L. Mencken

42.

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

43.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

44.

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

Douglas, William O.

45.

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

Bertrand Russell

46.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

47.

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

48.

For its part, Government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways -- to the voices of quiet anguish, to voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart, to the injured voices, and the anxious voices, and the voices that have despaired of being heard.

Nixon, Richard M.

49.

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

50.

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

Rostand, Jean