GOVERNMENT QUOTES VIII

quotations about government

Government has no rights; it is a delegation from several individuals for the purpose of securing their own. It is therefore just, only so far as it exists by their consent, useful only so far as it operates to their well-being.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

"Declaration of Rights"

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A general government shall do all those things which pertain to it, and all the local governments shall do precisely as they please in respect to those matters which exclusively concern them.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

speech at Columbus, September 16, 1859

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All kings is mostly rapscallions.

MARK TWAIN

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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Government is like a sincere alcoholic, who does not want to cause irreparable damage to his liver and yet cannot give up excessive drinking.

N. S. SAKSENA

Terrorism History and Facets


The populace must think their ruler is a greater man than they, else why should they follow him? Above all a leader must be a showman, giving his people the bread and circuses they require.

BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON

Dune: House Atreides

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Those who love their country never wish to rule it.

ABRAHAM MILLER

Unmoral Maxims

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It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people can't be governed at all.

CORMAC MCCARTHY

No Country for Old Men

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But whether we've won or lost, we need to trust that the government is acting for the (politically) correct reasons: liberal, if liberals have won; conservative, if conservatives have won; libertarian, if libertarians have won. We need to believe that the government is tracking the sort of interests it was intended to track.... When the actions of government conflict with those expectations, we will look beyond trust, for other reasons, to see whether they might explain the puzzle. Other reasons, such as money in the wrong places. When we find it--when we see that money was in the wrong place--it will affect us. It will weaken our trust in government. It will undermine our motivation to engage.

LAWRENCE LESSIG

Republic

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All government -- indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act -- is founded on compromise and barter.

EDMUND BURKE

second speech on Conciliation with America, 1775

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Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

RONALD REAGAN

attributed, The Age of Turbulence

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In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws, would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon

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The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.

MARGARET THATCHER

Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World

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Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, governments tend more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class--whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.

FRANK HERBERT

Children of Dune

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History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.

THOMAS JEFFERSON

letter to John Norvell, June 11, 1807

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Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.

WALTER BAGEHOT

The English Constitution

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The best discharge of government is government of our selves, and there we must begin.

BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE

Moral and Religious Aphorisms

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The grossest, the cruelest, the most selfish, the most easily pervertible and perverted thing in this world, is government.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

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Governments have a tendency not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

RONALD REAGAN

attributed, Presidential Wit and Wisdom

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The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

WILLIAM BEVERIDGE

Social Insurance and Allied Services


The mischiefs of anarchy have been equaled by the mischiefs of government.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit

Tags: Henry Ward Beecher