Motivational Quotes

Government

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

Best Quotes about Government

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

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

Updike, John

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

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

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

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

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.

Lippmann, Walter

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

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

10.

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

Hospers, John

11.

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

Updike, John

12.

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

13.

When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.

President Barack Obama

14.

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

15.

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

Melbourne, Lord

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

Macaulay, Thomas B.

19.

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

20.

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

Herbert, A. P.

21.

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

22.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

23.

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

Reston, James

24.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

25.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

26.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

27.

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

Russell, Bertrand

28.

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

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

29.

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

30.

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

31.

The auditor is a watchdog and not a bloodhound.

Topes, Lord Justice

32.

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

33.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

34.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

35.

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

Bertrand Russell

36.

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

Limbaugh, Rush

37.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Madison, James

38.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Voltaire

39.

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

Bunting, Basil

40.

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

41.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

42.

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

Roosevelt, Theodore

43.

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

Boytzwnburg, Count

44.

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

Gladstone, William E.

45.

Any cook should be able to run the country.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich

46.

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

47.

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

48.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

49.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

50.

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