quotations about government
The wheels of government go on, though wound up by different hands.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher in Seven Dialogues
We are not to expect perfection in this world; but mankind, in modern times, have apparently made some progress in the science of government.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Feb. 7, 1788
Yet it is instructive to trace the various causes, which produced the strength of one nation, and the decline and weakness of another; to learn by what arts one man has been able to subjugate millions of his fellow creatures, the motives which have put him upon action, and the causes of his success--sometimes driven by ambition and a lust of power; at other times, swallowed up by religious enthusiasms, blind bigotry, and ignorant zeal; sometimes enervated with luxury and debauched by pleasure, until the most powerful nations have become a prey and been subdued by these Sirens, when neither the number of their enemies, nor the prowess of their arms, could conquer them.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Quincy Adams, December 26, 1783
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
letter to Colonel Charles Yancey, January 6, 1816
The proper function of a government is to make it easy for people to do good and difficult for them to do evil.
JIMMY CARTER
Why Not the Best?
All government is cruel; for nothing is so cruel as impunity.
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
On the Rocks
While legislation can stimulate and encourage, the real creative ability which builds up and develops the country, and in general makes human existence more tolerable and life more complete, has to be supplied by the genius of the people themselves. The Government can supply no substitute for enterprise.
CALVIN COOLIDGE
speech, Jul. 4, 1924
A government is the complexion of the people--healthy as they are healthy, diseased as they are diseased.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
A scientific body to which had been confided the government of society would soon end by devoting itself no longer to science at all, but to quite another affair; and that affair, as in the case of all established powers, would be its own eternal perpetuation by rendering the society confided to its care ever more stupid and consequently more in need of its government and direction.
MIKHAIL BAKUNIN
God and the State
If you have a government of good laws and bad men, you will have a bad government. For bad men will not be bound by good laws.
ROBERT LEFEVRE
"Unlimited Government", Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph, Dec. 29, 1961
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good government.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1801
Governments are nothing more or less than gigantic criminal conspiracies, overgrown street gangs with no claims whatsoever to legitimacy. They are funded by theft and the basis of all their operations is aggression. They're no more entitled to keep their activities secret than any other gaggle of murderers, rapists and thieves.
TOMAS L. KNAPP
"At war with the concept of secrecy itself", August 25, 2013
Most traditional governments divide people, setting them against each other to weaken the society and make it governable.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
The Butlerian Jihad
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
JAMES A. GARFIELD
letter to B. A. Hinsdale, April 21, 1880
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are something to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honors are something to be ashamed of.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
For, as far as this life of mortals is concerned, which is spent and ended in a few days, what does it matter under whose government a dying man lives, if they who govern do not force him to impiety and iniquity?
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society. Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals on a large scale?
ST. AUGUSTINE
City of God
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;
An hour may lay it in the dust.
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
A wise Government seeks to provide the opportunity through which the best of individual achievement can be obtained, while at the same time it seeks to remove such obstruction, such unfairness as springs from selfish human motives.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Address at San Diego Exposition, Oct. 2, 1935