Motivational Quotes

Government

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

- Balzac, Honore De

Best Quotes about Government

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

Voltaire

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

Updike, John

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

Bob Wells

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

Kempton, Murray

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

Durant, William J.

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

The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.

Themistocles

That state is best ordered when the wicked have no command, and the good have.

Pittacus

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

Welch, Robert

10.

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

11.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

12.

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

Boytzwnburg, Count

13.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

14.

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

15.

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

Gladstone, William E.

16.

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.

17.

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

18.

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

Solon

19.

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.

Harry S Truman

20.

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

21.

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

Cousin, Victor

22.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

23.

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

Reagan, Ronald

24.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

Kennedy, John F.

25.

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

26.

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

27.

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

28.

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

Herbert, A. P.

29.

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

30.

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

31.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

32.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

33.

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

Wallis, W. Allen

34.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

35.

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

36.

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

37.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

38.

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

Friedman, Milton

39.

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

Jackson, Andrew

40.

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

Friedman, Milton

41.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

42.

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

43.

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

44.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

45.

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

46.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Voltaire

47.

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