Motivational Quotes

Government

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

Best Quotes about Government

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

Gladstone, William E.

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

Baxter, Beverley

We have the best government that money can buy.

Twain, Mark

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

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

Themistocles

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Jefferson, Thomas

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

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

Boytzwnburg, Count

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

10.

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

Limbaugh, Rush

11.

A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.

Alcott, Amos Bronson

12.

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

Gasset, Jose Ortega Y

13.

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

14.

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

Douglas, William O.

15.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

16.

It is easy to rule over the good.

Plautus, Titus Maccius

17.

I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

Rostand, Jean

18.

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

Reston, James

19.

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

20.

Public instruction should be the first object of government.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

21.

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

22.

Government can be bigger than any of the players on the field as a referee, but it has no right to become one of the players.

Igleheart, Austin

23.

When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects,this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.

Heinlein, Robert

24.

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

25.

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Chapman, John Jay

26.

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

Gardner, John W.

27.

An educated people can be easily governed.

Frederick The Great, (Frederick II)

28.

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

Baluch, Joy

29.

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

Murray, Bill

30.

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

Kempton, Murray

31.

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

32.

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

33.

After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.

Fred Thompson

34.

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

35.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Voltaire

36.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

37.

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

38.

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

39.

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

Proverb, French

40.

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.

41.

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

42.

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

Amsterdam, Maury

43.

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

Thomas Heatherwick

44.

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

Friedman, Milton

45.

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

Caldwell, John S.

46.

A government must not waiver once it has chosen it's course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward.

Bismarck, Otto Von

47.

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

Crockett, Davy

48.

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

49.

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

50.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward