Motivational Quotes

Government

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.

Best Quotes about Government

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

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

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

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

Jackson, Andrew

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

Reagan, Ronald

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

Kennedy, John F.

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.

John Kenneth Galbraith

10.

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

Russell, Bertrand

11.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

12.

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

Macaulay, Thomas B.

13.

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

Herbert, A. P.

14.

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

15.

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

Durant, William J.

16.

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

Themistocles

17.

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

Burns, George

18.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

19.

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

Baxter, Beverley

20.

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

Gardner, John W.

21.

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

H. L. Mencken

22.

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

23.

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

24.

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

Douglas, William O.

25.

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

26.

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

27.

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

Friedman, Milton

28.

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

Friedman, Milton

29.

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

30.

Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens, then everybody disagrees.

Marshalov, Boris

31.

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

Crockett, Davy

32.

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

Roosevelt, Theodore

33.

Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.

Carlyle, Thomas

34.

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

35.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Voltaire

36.

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

Thomas Heatherwick

37.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

38.

Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.

Updike, John

39.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

40.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Twain, Mark

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Kempton, Murray

44.

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

Lawson, Nigel

45.

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

Dulles, John Foster

46.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

47.

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

Einstein, Albert

48.

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

Welch, Robert

49.

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

50.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry