Motivational Quotes

Government

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

Best Quotes about Government

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

Proverb, French

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

Baxter, Beverley

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

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

Wallis, W. Allen

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

Douglas, William O.

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 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

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

Reagan, Ronald

Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.

Dulles, John Foster

10.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

11.

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

Burns, George

12.

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.

Churchill, Winston

13.

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

Friedman, Milton

14.

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

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

15.

For its part, Government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways -- to the voices of quiet anguish, to voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart, to the injured voices, and the anxious voices, and the voices that have despaired of being heard.

Nixon, Richard M.

16.

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

Reagan, Ronald

17.

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

18.

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

19.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

20.

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

Crockett, Davy

21.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

22.

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

Welch, Robert

23.

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

Friedman, Milton

24.

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

Pittacus

25.

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

26.

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

Durant, William J.

27.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

28.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

29.

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

30.

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.

31.

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Chapman, John Jay

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.

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

Caldwell, John S.

34.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Roosevelt, Theodore

35.

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

36.

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

37.

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

Boytzwnburg, Count

38.

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

Truman, Harry S

39.

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

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.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

42.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

43.

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

Einstein, Albert

44.

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

Macaulay, Thomas B.

45.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

H. L. Mencken

46.

The ship of state is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.

Reston, James

47.

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

Kocher, Gerhard

48.

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

Gladstone, William E.

49.

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

Limbaugh, Rush

50.

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