GOVERNMENT QUOTES III
quotations about government
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It's simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we've been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
CARL SAGAN
The Demon-Haunted World
I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government,
But violence, duplicity and frequent malversation.
King rules or barons rule:
The strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice.
They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it.
T. S. ELIOT
Murder in the Cathedral
Do you know what happens with people who cannot govern themselves? That's right. Others come in to govern for them.
CORMAC MCCARTHY
Blood Meridian
The Government is a servant and never should be anything but a servant. The moment the people become adjuncts to government, then the law of retribution begins to work, for such a relation is unnatural, immoral, and inhuman.
HENRY FORD
introduction, My Life and Work
In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.
JAMES MADISON
Federalist No. 51, Feb. 6, 1788
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.
FRANK HERBERT
Chapterhouse: Dune
The ten most dangerous words in the English language are "Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."
RONALD REAGAN
remarks to Future Farmers of America, Jul. 28, 1988
The State is composite: part ass, part vulture, but principally milch-cow.
ABRAHAM MILLER
Unmoral Maxims
Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on or by imbeciles who really mean it.
LAURENCE J. PETER
The Peter Principle
The government is us; we are the government, you and I.
THEODORE ROOSEVELT
speech at Asheville, Sep. 9, 1902
While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.
JOHN ADAMS
letter to Thomas Jefferson, Jul. 9, 1813
To leave a people to themselves, is generally the best service their rulers can render.
WILLIAM E. CHANNING
Thoughts
No people are so easy to govern as the intelligent, and none are so hard to govern as the ignorant.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit
Most people want nothing to happen. That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle.
ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter, Oct. 31, 1786
Many have been thought capable of governing, until they have been called to govern.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all Divines and moral Philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best.
JOHN ADAMS
Thoughts on Government
For just experience tells, in every soil,
That those who think must govern those that toil.
OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Traveller
But who will guard the guardians themselves?
JUVENAL
Satire VI
The love of dominion, is so strong in the breast of man, that many not only submit to, but court all the dangers, and fatigues, and cares of government.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary