Quotes about Government

“There'd never been a more advantageous time to be a criminal in America than during the 13 years of Prohibition. At a stroke, the American government closed down the fifth largest industry in the United States - alcohol production - and just handed it to criminals - a pretty remarkable thing to do.”

“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.”

“One of these days the people of Louisiana are going to get good government - and they aren't going to like it.”

“What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?”

“Things are difficult enough about Iraq without the Federal Government suppressing the truth about Iraq.”

“The word democracy comes from the Greek and means, literally, government by the people.”

“The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing.”

“If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also.”

“If the jury have no right to judge of the justice of a law of the government, they plainly can do nothing to protect the people against the oppressions of the government; for there are no oppressions which the government may not authorize by law.”

“By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”

“At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East, we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.”

“Real patriotism is a willingness to challenge the government when it's wrong.”

“The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.”

“This is a generation weaned on Watergate, and there is no presumption of innocence and no presumption of good intentions. Instead, there is a presumption that, without relentless scrutiny, the government will misbehave.”

“If there's one thing government needs desperately, it's the ability to quickly try something, pivot when necessary, and build complex systems by starting with simple systems that work and evolving from there, not the other way around.”

“Listen, in the same way that politics and government allow people to engage in large issues, media does the same.”

“The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.”

“The right and the physical power of the people to resist injustice, are really the only securities that any people ever can have for their liberties. Practically no government knows any limit to its power but the endurance of the people.”

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

“A limited government is much more likely to be a competent government.”

“The possibility of change in North Korea arose from its greatest calamity - the famine in the 1990s, in which over a million of its citizens died. Until then, according to defectors, most North Koreans were simply unaware that different ways of life or forms of government existed in the world.”