Quotes about Government

“Democracy may not prove in the long run to be as efficient as other forms of government, but it has one saving grace: it allows us to know and say that it isn't.”

“The maxim, that governments ought to train the people in the way in which they should go, sounds well. But is there any reason for believing that a government is more likely to lead the people in the right way than the people to fall into the right way of themselves?”

“But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.”

“In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.”

“Democracy... is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.”

“When times get tough, we get tougher. Failure and government assistance are not an option for us.”

“I don't give my money to the government.”

“I believed the only thing that could turn around this government spending and mounting debt would be if the people rose up.”

“Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.”

“On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.”

“There have been two periods in my lifetime when the excitement of government and of public issues drew to Washington many of the bright young people graduating from colleges and law schools. These were essentially the Roosevelt and the Kennedy years.”

“Who controls the issuance of money controls the government!”

“The first duty of a government is to maintain law and order so that the life, property, and religious beliefs of its subjects are fully protected by the State.”

“The argument of socialists, that people really want to share, beyond a reasonable level of charity, is rubbish, though it is espoused by a lot of rich, pious hypocrites who want to share only enough to avoid widespread starvation, mob violence, and government seizure of more of their incomes.”

“The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.”

“Americans specially love superlatives. The phrases 'biggest in the world,' 'finest in the world,' are on all lips. Unless President Hayes is a strong man, they will soon come to boast that their government is composed of the 'biggest scoundrels' in the world.”

“The Bible must be considered as the great source of all the truth by which men are to be guided in government as well as in all social transactions.”

“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.”

“It is time to cut out the mountains of waste and inefficiency and duplication in the federal government.”

“The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”

“When a federal court issues an order against enforcement of a government policy, the ruling traditionally applies only to the plaintiff in that case.”