Motivational Quotes

Government

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

Best Quotes about Government

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

Thomas Heatherwick

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

Dulles, John Foster

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

Amsterdam, Maury

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

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

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

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

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

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

Themistocles

10.

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

11.

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

Jefferson, Thomas

12.

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

Rostand, Jean

13.

For every action there is an equal and opposite government program.

Bob Wells

14.

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

15.

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

Solon

16.

Do not ask what the Government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.

Kocher, Gerhard

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

H. L. Mencken

20.

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

Lawson, Nigel

21.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

22.

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

Wotton, Sir Henry

23.

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

24.

When our government is spoken of as some menacing, threatening, foreign entity, it ignores the fact that in our democracy, government is us.

President Barack Obama

25.

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

Alcott, Amos Bronson

26.

But their determination to banish fools foundered ultimately in the installation of absolute idiots.

Bunting, Basil

27.

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

Beecher, Henry Ward

28.

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

Gladstone, William E.

29.

Roosevelt, Theodore

30.

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

Gardner, John W.

31.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

32.

Truth is the glue that holds government together.

Ford, Gerald R.

33.

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

34.

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

35.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

36.

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

37.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

Voltaire

38.

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

39.

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

40.

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

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

41.

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

Jefferson, Thomas

42.

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

Truman, Harry S

43.

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

44.

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

Pittacus

45.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

46.

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

47.

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

48.

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

George W. Bush

49.

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

Welch, Robert

50.

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