Motivational Quotes

Government

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

- William H. Borah

Best Quotes about Government

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.

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary.

Humboldt, Karl Wilhelm Von

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

Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.

Jefferson, Thomas

Office without pay makes thieves.

Proverb, German

The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.

Wilson, Harold

Fear is the foundation of most government.

Adams, John

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Bertrand Russell

Large legislative bodies resolve themselves into coteries, and coteries into jealousies.

Bonaparte, Napoleon

10.

I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.

Updike, John

11.

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.

12.

Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.

Burns, George

13.

Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

Hume, David

14.

Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies.

Balzac, Honore De

15.

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

16.

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

17.

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

18.

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

Bob Wells

19.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Hamilton, Alexander

20.

It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.

Gladstone, William E.

21.

Freedom of men under government is to have a standing rule to live by, common to every one of that society, and made by the legislative power vested in it; a liberty to follow my own will in all things, when the rule prescribes not, and not to be subject to the inconstant, unknown, arbitrary will of another man.

Locke, John

22.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

Reagan, Ronald

23.

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

Lawson, Nigel

24.

Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.

Updike, John

25.

Any cook should be able to run the country.

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich

26.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

Reagan, Ronald

27.

The supply of government exceeds demand.

Lapham, Lewis H.

28.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.

Jackson, Andrew

29.

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

30.

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

Solon

31.

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

32.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

33.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Roosevelt, Theodore

34.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

William H. Borah

35.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Twain, Mark

36.

In the councils of a state, the question is not so much, what ought to be done? As, what can be done?

Proverb, French

37.

The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.

Sade, Marquis De

38.

So they [the Government] go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

Sir Winston Churchill

39.

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon

40.

An ambassador is an honest person sent to lie abroad for their country.

Wotton, Sir Henry

41.

A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay.

Alcott, Amos Bronson

42.

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.