Quotes about government

"Fear is the foundation of most government."

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

Alcott, Amos Bronson on government
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"Our Congress is the finest body of men money can buy."

Amsterdam, Maury on government
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"It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations."

Bagehot, Walter on government   

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"Being nice to governments doesn't work, they are such lying bastards."

Baluch, Joy on government   

"Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies."

Balzac, Honore De on government   

"Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."

Bastiat, Frederic on government
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"Governing today means giving acceptable signs of credibility. It is like advertising and it is the same effect that is achieved -- commitment to a scenario."

Baudrillard, Jean on government   

"Beaverbrook is so pleased to be in the government that he is like the town tart who finally married the Mayor."

Baxter, Beverley on government   

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

Beecher, Henry Ward on government
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"The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man."

Beveridge, Baron William Henry on government   

"A government must not waiver once it has chosen its course. It must not look to the left or right but go forward."

Bismarck, Otto Von on government   

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon on government   

"Public instruction should be the first object of government."

Bonaparte, Napoleon on government   

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

Bonaparte, Napoleon on government   

"The government must always be a step ahead of the popular movement."

Boytzwnburg, Count on government   

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

Bunting, Basil on government   

"Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government."

Burke, Edmund on government
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"Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair."

Burns, George on government
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"The point to remember is what government gives it must first take away"

Caldwell, John S. on government   

"By definition, a government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more."

Camus, Albert on government
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"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 on government   

"In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government."

Carlyle, Thomas on government   

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"Thou camest out of thy mother's belly without government, thou hast liv'd hitherto without government, and thou mayst be carried to thy long home without government, when it shall please the Lord. How many people in this world live without government, yet do well enough, and are well look'd upon?"

Cervantes, Miguel De on government   

"Good government is the outcome of private virtue."

Chapman, John Jay on government   

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time."

Churchill, Winston on government
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"Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people."

Cleveland, Grover on government   

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"The three great ends which a statesman ought to propose to himself in the government of a nation, are -- 1. Security to possessors; 2. Facility to acquirers; and, 3. Hope to all."

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor on government   

"Nations it may be have fashioned their Governments, but the Governments have paid them back in the same coin."

Conrad, Joseph on government   

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

Cousin, Victor on government   

"Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have."

Crockett, Davy on government
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"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 on government   

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

Douglas, William O. on government
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"Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence."

Dulles, John Foster on government   

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

Durant, William J. on government   

"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 on government
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"Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced."

Einstein, Albert on government
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"The less government we have the better."

Emerson, Ralph Waldo on government
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"Truth is the glue that holds government together."

Ford, Gerald R. on government   

"Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion."

Franklin, Benjamin on government
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