Government Quotes - Page 10

• To the free man, the country is the collection of individuals who compose it, not something over and above them. He is proud of a common heritage and loyal to common traditions. But he regards government as a means, an instrumentality, neither a grantor of favors and gifts, nor a master or god to be blindly worshipped and served.

  Milton Friedman

  Country, Mean, Men

  "Capitalism and Freedom". Book by Milton Friedman, 1962.

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• The divine right of kings may have been a plea for feeble tyrants, but the divine right of government is the keystone of human progress, and without it governments sink into police, and a nation is degraded into a mob.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Kings, Tyrants, Divine Right

  Benjamin Disraeli (1875). “Collected Edition of the Novels and Tales”, p.9

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• We all have the republican spirit in our veins, like syphilis in our bones. We are democratized and venerealized.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Veins, Syphilis, Spirit

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• Whatever happens in a government could have happened differently, and it usually would have been better if it had.

  Charles Frankel

  Whatever Happens, Happened, Has Beens

  Charles Frankel (1969). “High on Foggy Bottom: an outsider's inside view of the Government”

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• A government is not an old pair of socks that you throw away.

  Boris Yeltsin

  Pairs, Sock

  "The wit and wisdom of Boris", www.theguardian.com. April 23, 2007.

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• The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.

  Samuel Johnson

  Ordinary, Royalty, Monarchy

  Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt (1854). “Johnson's Lives of the British poets completed by W. Hazlitt”, p.45

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• The government of the Union, then, ... is, emphatically, and truly, a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.

  John Marshall

  People, Substance, Benefits

  Gerald Gunther, John Marshall (1969). “John Marshall's Defense of McCulloch V. Maryland”, p.26, Stanford University Press

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• History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Believe, Faith Religion

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.193, Cambridge University Press

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• It may pass for a maxim in State, that the administration cannot be placed in too few hands, nor the legislature in too many.

  Jonathan Swift

  Hands, Administration, May

  Jonathan Swift (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Jonathan Swift (Illustrated)”, p.1109, Delphi Classics

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• We are more heavily taxed by our idleness, pride and folly than we are taxed by government.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Pride, Folly, Idleness

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• Government mitigates the inequality of power, and makes an innocent man, though of the lowest rank, a match for the mightiest of his fellow-subjects.

  Joseph Addison

  Men, Innocent Man, Inequality

  Joseph Addison (1872). “The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison”, p.443

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• Consider in fact, a body of six hundred and fifty-eight miscellaneous persons, set to consult about "business," with twenty-seven millions, mostly fools, assiduously listening to them, and checking and criticising them. Was there ever, since the world began, will there ever be till the world end, any "business" accomplished in these circumstances?

  Thomas Carlyle

  Eight, Listening, World

  Thomas Carlyle (2014). “The Selected Works of Thomas Carlyle”, p.637, Lulu.com

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• There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government.

  Washington Irving

  Long, Despotism, Species

  Washington Irving (1999). “Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories”, p.58, Penguin

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• For where's the State beneath the Firmament,
  That doth excell the Bees for Government?

  Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas

  Bees, States, Firmament

  Josuah Sylvester, Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas (seigneur), Gui Du Faur de Pibrac, Odet de La Noue (seigneur de Téligny), Henry Smith (1967). “The Complete Works of Joshuah Sylvester: For the First Time Collected and Edited”

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• First there is the democratic idea: that all men are endowed by their creator with certain natural rights; that these rights are alienable only by the possessor thereof; that they are equal in men; that government is to organize these natural, unalienable and equal rights into institutions designed for the good of the governed, and therefore government is to be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. Here government is development, not exploitation.

  Theodore Parker

  Men, Rights, Ideas

  Theodore Parker (1867). “Additional Speeches, Addresses, and Occasional Sermons”, p.25

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• Few consider how much we are indebted to government, because few can represent how wretched mankind would be without it.

  Francis Atterbury

  Would Be, Mankind, Wretched

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• The government will take the fairest of names, but the worst of realities--mob rule.

  Polybius

  Reality, Names, Mob Rule

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• To prevent evil is the great end of government, the end for which vigilance and severity are properly employed.

  Samuel Johnson

  Evil, Ends, Vigilance

  Samuel Johnson (1827). “The Rambler”, p.48

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• Government expands to absorb revenue - and then some.

  Tom Wicker

  Revenue, Murphys Law

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• Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.

  Plato

  Funny, Life, Sarcastic

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• I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

  Will Rogers

  Funny, Sarcastic, Witty

  In Saturday Review 25 Aug. 1962

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• You will find that [the] State [Department] is the kind of organisation which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly too.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Kindness, Organization, Doe

  "High on Foggy Bottom: An Outsider's Inside View of the Government". Book by Charles Frankel, 1969.

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

  John W. Gardner

  Teamwork, Hardship, Invisible

  John W. Gardner (1971). “The Recovery of Confidence”

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• Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down.

  Robert Orben

  Way, Politician, Taxes

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• Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln.

  Will Rogers

  Pregnancy, Ohio, President

  "How we elect our Presidents". Book by Will Day, p. 9, 1952.

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