Motivational Quotes

Government

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

- Raleigh, Sir Walter

Best Quotes about Government

The contented and economically comfortable have a very discriminating view of government. Nobody is ever indignant about bailing out failed banks and failed savings and loans associations. But when taxes must be paid for the lower middle class and poor, the government assumes an aspect of wickedness.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government rather than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Johnson, Samuel

Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests.

Mills, C. Wright

Do not ask what the Government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.

Kocher, Gerhard

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. There has never been a really good one, and even those that are most tolerable are arbitrary, cruel, grasping and unintelligent.

Mencken, H. L.

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Chapman, John Jay

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

H. L. Mencken

When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to it's subjects,this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.

Heinlein, Robert

All good government must begin at home.

Haweis, H. R.

10.

The worst thing in the world next to anarchy, is government.

Beecher, Henry Ward

11.

I say to myself that I mustn't let myself be cut off in there, and yet the moment I enter my bag is taken out of my hand, I'm pushed in, shepherded, nursed and above all cut off, alone. Whitehall envelops me.

Crossman, Richard

12.

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

13.

Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principles.

Durant, William J.

14.

For its part, Government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways -- to the voices of quiet anguish, to voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart, to the injured voices, and the anxious voices, and the voices that have despaired of being heard.

Nixon, Richard M.

15.

It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.

Voltaire

16.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

17.

We must judge a government by its general tendencies and not by its happy accidents.

Macaulay, Thomas B.

18.

You can only govern men by serving them. The rule is without exception.

Cousin, Victor

19.

But their determination to banish fools foundered ultimately in the installation of absolute idiots.

Bunting, Basil

20.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Jefferson, Thomas

21.

The art of government is not to let me grow stale.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

22.

Well, fancy giving money to the Government! Might as well have put it down the drain.

Herbert, A. P.

23.

To govern is to choose. To appear to be unable to choose is to appear to be unable to govern.

Lawson, Nigel

24.

I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.

Rostand, Jean

25.

You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.

John Kenneth Galbraith

26.

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.

Reston, James

27.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

Gardner, John W.

28.

Generosity is a part of my character, and I therefore hasten to assure this Government that I will never make an allegation of dishonesty against it wherever a simple explanation of stupidity will suffice.

Lever, Leslie Baron

29.

The point to remember is what government gives it must first take away

Caldwell, John S.

30.

The government is huge, stupid, greedy and makes nosy, officious and dangerous intrusions into the smallest corners of life -- this much we can stand. But the real problem is that government is boring. We could cure or mitigate the other ills Washington visits on us if we could only bring ourselves to pay attention to Washington itself. But we cannot.

O'Rourke, P. J.

31.

The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.

Themistocles

32.

Safety of the state is the highest law.

Justinian

33.

Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.

Carlyle, Thomas

34.

In a healthy nation there is a kind of dramatic balance between the will of the people and the government, which prevents its degeneration into tyranny.

Einstein, Albert

35.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

36.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Von

37.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Madison, James

38.

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

Bob Wells

39.

What we should be asking is not whether we need a big government or small government, but how we can create a smarter and better government.

President Barack Obama

40.

You could afford your house without the government if it weren't for the government.

Limbaugh, Rush

41.

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.

Thoreau, Henry David

42.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

Raleigh, Sir Walter

43.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

Johnson, Lyndon B.

44.

It would be foolish to suggest that government is a good custodian of aesthetic goals. But, there is no alternative to the state.

Galbraith, John Kenneth

45.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

Reagan, Ronald

46.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

Kennedy, John F.

47.

The constitution is not neutral. It was designed to take the government off the backs of people.

Douglas, William O.

48.

No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.

Nepos, Cornelius

49.

The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.

Shaw, George Bernard

50.

Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.

Solon