Motivational Quotes

Government

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

- Lawson, Nigel

Best Quotes about Government

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

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

Melbourne, Lord

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

Crockett, Davy

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

Themistocles

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

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

Hospers, John

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

Public instruction should be the first object of government.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

10.

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

11.

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

Caldwell, John S.

12.

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

Friedman, Milton

13.

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

Kempton, Murray

14.

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

15.

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

16.

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

Baluch, Joy

17.

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

Reagan, Ronald

18.

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

19.

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

Jackson, Andrew

20.

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

21.

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

22.

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

Lawson, Nigel

23.

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.

H. L. Mencken

24.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

25.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

26.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

27.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

28.

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

Herbert, A. P.

29.

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

Amsterdam, Maury

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 basis of effective government is public confidence.

Kennedy, John F.

32.

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.

33.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

34.

No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.

Socrates

35.

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

36.

In a healthy nation there is a kind of dramatic balance between the will of the people and the government, which prevents its degeneration into tyranny.

Einstein, Albert

37.

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

Bertrand Russell

38.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Twain, Mark

39.

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

Cousin, Victor

40.

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

41.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Voltaire

42.

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

43.

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

George W. Bush

44.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

45.

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

Baxter, Beverley

46.

As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.

Jackson, Andrew

47.

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

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

48.

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

Proverb, French

49.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

50.

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