Quotes about government

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

Russell, Bertrand on government   

"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 on government   

"In our consumer confidence surveys, we ask people whether they think government economic policy is good, fair, or poor. Increasingly, the answer we get is just plain laughter."

Schmiedeskamp, Jay on government   

"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 on government   

"Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both."

Shaw, George Bernard on government   

"Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay."

Shelley, Percy Bysshe on government
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"No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government."

Socrates on government
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"Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law."

Solon on government   

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

Themistocles on government   

"The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine."

Thoreau, Henry David on government   

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"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 on government   

"That government is best which governs least."

Thoreau, Henry David on government
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"This American government -- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will."

Thoreau, Henry David on government   

"In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man."

Tolstoy, Count Leo on government   

"The auditor is a watchdog and not a bloodhound."

Topes, Lord Justice on government   

"Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship."

Truman, Harry S on government
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"No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision."

Tuchman, Barbara on government   

"It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress."

Twain, Mark on government
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"We have the best government that money can buy."

Twain, Mark on government
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"Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading."

Updike, John on government   

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

Updike, John on government
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"Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers."

Voltaire on government
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"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."

Voltaire on government
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"The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination."

Voltaire on government
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"It is doubtful that the government knows much more than the public does about how government [Economic] policies will work."

Wallis, W. Allen on government   

"Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

Washington, George on government
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"Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government."

Washington, George on government
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"The whole country is one vast insane asylum and they're letting the worst patients run the place."

Welch, Robert on government
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"The monarchy is a labor intensive industry."

Wilson, Harold on government   

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

Wotton, Sir Henry on government   

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

Kocher, Gerhard on government   

"Believe me - the Government will help you anytime it needs you. "

Kocher, Gerhard on government   

"The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced."

Zappa, Frank on government
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"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."

Jefferson, Thomas on government
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"Rex 84 is a martial law plan that allows the federal government to destroy the separation of powers."

Dye, James on government