Limited Government Quotes

• I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

  Ronald Reagan

  Independent, Men, Law

  Ronald Reagan, Michael Reagan (2016). “The Last Best Hope: The Greatest Speeches of Ronald Reagan”, p.226, Humanix Books

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• The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Gun, Government, Southern

  180 Copy quote

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

  George Washington

  Patience, Inspiration, 4th Of July

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  We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Freedom, Men, Democracies Have

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• The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Men, Issues

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• The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

  James Madison

  Truth, Men, Presidential

  James Madison's notes on the debates in the Federal Convention, avalon.law.yale.edu. July 11, 1787.

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• Government is best which governs least

  Thomas Paine

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Government

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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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• You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Libertarian Party, Liberty, Politics

  Martin D. Tullai, Abraham Lincoln (1998). “Speaking of Abraham Lincoln”

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• The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions

  Daniel Webster

  Freedom, Gun, Libertarian Party

  Daniel Webster, James Rees (1839). “The beauties of the Hon. Daniel Webster: selected and arranged, with a critical essay on his genius and writings”, p.30

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• Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Presidential, Liberty, Libertarian

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• It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Fall, Errors, Government

  American Communications Ass'n v. Douds (1950)

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• If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Freedom, Patriotic, Libertarian Party

  "Strictly Personal" by W. Somerset Maugham, (ch. 31), 1941.

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• With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

  James Madison

  Character, Government, Liberty

  James Madison's letter to James Robertson, April 20, 1831.

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• The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

  H. L. Mencken

  Peace, Freedom, War

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• No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited; the words "no" and "not" employed in restraint of government power occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights.

  Edmund A. Opitz

  America, Rights, Government

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• You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.

  William J. H. Boetcker

  Strength, Strong, Don't Give Up

  "The Industrial Decalogue" (1916). These "ten cannots" are frequently, but falsely, attributed to Abraham Lincoln.

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  The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, Liberty, Libertarian

  Milton Friedman (1975). “An Economist's Protest”

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• A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.

  Ramsey Clark

  Rights, Libertarian Party, Giving

  1977 In the NewYork Times, 2 Oct.

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• We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Life, Change, Happiness

  Declaration of Independence (1776).

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• If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one.

  James Madison

  Government, Done, Constitution

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.31, University of Virginia Press

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• Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, Libertarian Party, Democracies Have

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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• Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Men

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1793-1798”, p.238, Cosimo, Inc.

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  Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Presidential, Liberty, Taxation

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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