Motivational Quotes

Government

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

Best Quotes about Government

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.

Mencken, H. L.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

Large legislative bodies resolve themselves into coteries, and coteries into jealousies.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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

Welch, Robert

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

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

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 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

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

10.

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

11.

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

Proverb, French

12.

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

Baxter, Beverley

13.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

14.

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

15.

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

16.

Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.

Burns, George

17.

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

Voltaire

18.

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

Solon

19.

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

20.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

21.

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

22.

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

Russell, Bertrand

23.

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

24.

Any cook should be able to run the country.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich

25.

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

Pittacus

26.

The point to remember is what government gives it must first take away

Caldwell, John S.

27.

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

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

28.

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

Durant, William J.

29.

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

Hospers, John

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

33.

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

34.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Voltaire

35.

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

Melbourne, Lord

36.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

37.

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

38.

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

Mirabeau, Comte De

39.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

40.

Public instruction should be the first object of government.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

41.

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

42.

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

Gardner, John W.

43.

Any government is potentially the worst client in the world you could ever possibly want to have.

Thomas Heatherwick

44.

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

45.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

George W. Bush