Government Quotes - Page 4

• A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2011). “Jefferson on Freedom: Wisdom, Advice, and Hints on Freedom, Democracy, and the American Way”, p.65, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

  George Washington

  Inspiration, 4th Of July, Patriotic

  Farewell Address, Philadelphia, Pa., 19 Sept. 1796

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• The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.

  Gore Vidal

  Class, People, Political

  "Matters of Fact and Fiction: Essays 1973 - 1976". Book by Gore Vidal (p. 280), 1978.

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• We are grateful to the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost 40 years......It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supernational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national autodetermination practiced in past centuries.

  David Rockefeller

  New York, Grateful, Past

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• An elective despotism was not the government we fought for, but one which should not only be founded on true free principles, but in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among general bodies of magistracy, as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Liberty, Principles, Body

  "Notes on the State of Virginia". Book by Thomas Jefferson, Query XIII, 1781.

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• The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

  James Madison

  Hands, Independent Judiciary, Political

  The Federalist no. 47 (1788)

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• A corporation's primary goal is to make money. Government's primary role is to take a big chunk of that money and give it to others.

  Larry Ellison

  Inspirational, Money, Giving

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• People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.

  James Bovard

  Selfish, Lying, Mean

  "Talkin' to America" with Aaron Zelman, jpfo.org.

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• The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Political, Religion

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson: Inaugural addresses and messages. Replies to public addresses. Indian addresses. Miscellaneous: 1. Notes on Virginia; 2. Biographical sketches of distinguished men; 3. The batture of New Orleans”, p.400

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• It is a government of the people by the people for the people no longer it is a government of corporations by corporations for corporations

  Rutherford B. Hayes

  People, Political, Economic Globalization

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• That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy.

  Thomas B. Macaulay

  People, Desire, Know How

  "Essay on Mitford's History of Greece". Book by Thomas B. Macaulay, 1824.

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• Hereditary right should be kept sacred, not from any inalienable right in a particular family, but to avoid the consequences that usually attend the ambition of competitors.

  Jonathan Swift

  Ambition, Sacred, Should

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

  Albert Camus

  Definitions, Politics, Sometimes

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• People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people.

  Alan Moore

  People, Accountability, Should

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• Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Voting

  "The Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw".

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

  Ronald Reagan

  Politics, Problem, Rearranging

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  Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Trust, Time, Democracies Have

  Thomas Jefferson, Joyce Appleby, Terence Ball (1999). “Jefferson: Political Writings”, p.235, Cambridge University Press

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• There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Loyalty, Men, Important

  Attributed in W. T. Roche's address at Washington, Kansas, April 9, 1942; "Congressional Record", April 15, 1942, vol. 88, Appendix, (p. A149), 1942.

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• On July 4 we celebrate government of the people, by the people, and for the people, or as they are now called, corporations.

  Andy Borowitz

  Funny, Anniversary, 4th Of July

  FaceBook post by Andy Borowitz from Jul 05, 2012

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• An educated people can be easily governed.

  Frederick The Great

  Education, People, Judging

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• Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Passion, Men, Justice

  The Federalist no. 15 (1788)

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• The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Contracts, Make Sense, Suspects

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• If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

  Frank Herbert

  Wise, Thinking, Political

  Frank Herbert (2017). “The Dosadi Experiment and The Eyes of Heisenberg: Two Classic Works of Science Fiction”, p.107, Tor Science Fiction

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• Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Death, Witty, Dying

  The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet preface (1911)

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• 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.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Wise, Wisdom, Men

  Percy Bysshe Shelley, Richard Herne Shepherd (1810). “The Prose Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley ... Ed. ... by Richard Herne Shepherd”, p.244

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