Motivational Quotes

Government

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

Best Quotes about Government

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

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

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

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.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

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

Macaulay, Thomas B.

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

Lawson, Nigel

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.

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

11.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

12.

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

13.

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

14.

The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever indignant about bailing out failed banks and failed savings and loans associations. But when taxes must be paid for the lower middle class and poor, the government assumes an aspect of wickedness.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

15.

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

Reston, James

16.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

17.

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

Updike, John

18.

Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.

Solon

19.

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

Baluch, Joy

20.

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

Sir Winston Churchill

21.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

22.

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

Durant, William J.

23.

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

Roosevelt, Theodore

24.

Any cook should be able to run the country.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich

25.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

26.

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

Einstein, Albert

27.

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

28.

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

Proverb, French

29.

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

30.

The auditor is a watchdog and not a bloodhound.

Topes, Lord Justice

31.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

32.

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

33.

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

34.

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

Voltaire

35.

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

36.

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

Melbourne, Lord

37.

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

Boytzwnburg, Count

38.

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

39.

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

Amsterdam, Maury

40.

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

Herbert, A. P.

41.

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

Russell, Bertrand

42.

Fear is the foundation of most government.