Motivational Quotes

Government

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

- Bertrand Russell

Best Quotes about Government

It is easy to rule over the good.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

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

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

Lawson, Nigel

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

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

Jefferson, Thomas

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

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

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

The government can destroy wealth but it cannot create wealth, which is the product of labor and management working with creation.

Murray, Bill

10.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

11.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

12.

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

Macaulay, Thomas B.

13.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

Reagan, Ronald

14.

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

Baluch, Joy

15.

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

Russell, Bertrand

16.

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

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.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

19.

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

Proverb, French

20.

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

21.

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

22.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

23.

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

24.

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

Boytzwnburg, Count

25.

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

Thomas Heatherwick

26.

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

27.

The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.

Sade, Marquis De

28.

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

29.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

Kennedy, John F.

30.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

31.

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

32.

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

Baxter, Beverley

33.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Twain, Mark

34.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

35.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

36.

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

Einstein, Albert

37.

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

Herbert, A. P.

38.

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

39.

Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.

Crockett, Davy

40.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

41.

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

Burns, George

42.

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

Bastiat, Frederic

43.

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

Richard M. Nixon

44.

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

Amsterdam, Maury

45.

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

46.

Public instruction should be the first object of government.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

47.

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

Voltaire

48.

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

49.

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

50.

Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

Truman, Harry S