Motivational Quotes

Government

Safety of the state is the highest law.

- Justinian

Best Quotes about Government

The constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

Douglas, William O.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

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

Bertrand Russell

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

Updike, John

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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.

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

Crockett, Davy

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

Richard M. Nixon

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

Reagan, Ronald

10.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

11.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

12.

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

13.

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

14.

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

Limbaugh, Rush

15.

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

16.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

20.

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

21.

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.

22.

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

23.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

24.

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

25.

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

Wallis, W. Allen

26.

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

Friedman, Milton

27.

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.

Reston, James

28.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

29.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

30.

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

Russell, Bertrand

31.

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

32.

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.

Thoreau, Henry David

33.

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

Solon

34.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

35.

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

Truman, Harry S

36.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

37.

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

38.

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

Macaulay, Thomas B.

39.

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

Melbourne, Lord

40.

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

41.

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

George W. Bush

42.

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

Baluch, Joy

43.

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

44.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.