Purpose Of Government Quotes

• The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Happiness, Government, People

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• The chief purpose of government is to protect life. Abandon that and you have abandoned all.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Purpose, Abandoned

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• The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Happiness, Government, Political

  Thomas Jefferson (2004). “Light and Liberty: Reflections on the Pursuit of Happiness”, p.8, Modern Library

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• I have always felt that the real purpose of government is to enhance the lives of people and that a leader can best do that by restraining government in most cases instead of enlarging it at every opportunity.

  Gerald R. Ford

  Real, Opportunity, Government

  "A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford". Book by Gerald R. Ford, 1979.

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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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• 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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• I submit that the Government exists to provide for the needs of the people, and when it comes to choice between profits and property rights on the one hand and human welfare on the other, there should be no hesitation whatsoever in saying that we are going to place the human welfare consideration first and let property rights and financial interests fare as best they may.

  J. S. Woodsworth

  Rights, Government, Hands

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• I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress.

  Robert Kennedy

  Believe, Government, Long

  Robert F. Kennedy (1968). “A New Day: Robert F. Kennedy”

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• The fundamental purpose of government is to protect its citizens.

  Arlen Specter

  Government, Citizens, Purpose

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• It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve.

  Henry George

  Religious, Men, Rights

  Henry George, A. C. Auchmuty (1908). “Gems from Henry George: being memorable passages from the writings and addresses of the author of "Progress and poverty"”

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• The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people.

  William J. Clinton

  Rights, Government, People

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• The proper role of government is exactly what John Stuart Mill said in the middle of the 19th century in "On Liberty." The proper role of government is to prevent other people from harming an individual. Government, he said, never has any right to interfere with an individual for that individual's own good.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, People, Political

  "Friedman & Szasz On Liberty and Drugs". Interview with Randy Paige on "America's Drug Forum", www.druglibrary.org. 1991.

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• The good of the people must be the great purpose of government. By the laws of nature and of reason, the governors are invested with power to that end. And the greatest good of the people is liberty. It is to the state what health is to the individual.

  Denis Diderot

  Law, Government, People

  "L'Encyclopédie", Article on Government, 1766.

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• The only legitimate purpose of government is to serve citizens, and ... the only legitimate purpose of technology is to improve our lives, not to manipulate or enslave us.

  Rebecca MacKinnon

  Technology, Government, Citizens

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• The Founding Father expressed in words for all to read the ideal of Government based upon the dignity of the individual. That ideal previously had existed only in the hearts and minds of men. They produced the timeless documents upon which the Nation is rounded and has grown great. They, recognizing God as the author of individual fights, declared that the purpose of Government is to secure those rights.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Father, Heart, Fighting

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• The most fundamental purpose of government is defense, not empire.

  Joseph Sobran

  Government, Libertarian Party, Liberty

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• The purpose of government is for those who run it to plunder those who do not.

  Thomas DiLorenzo

  Running, Government, Purpose

  7 Copy quote

• The sheer number of government employees and welfare recipients effectively transforms the purpose of government from maintaining order to confiscating as much as possible from vulnerable taxpayers.

  James Bovard

  Government, Order, Numbers

  James Bovard (2015). “Freedom in Chains: The Rise of the State and the Demise of the Citizen”, p.137, Macmillan

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• Surely by now there can be few here who still believe the purpose of government is to protect us from the destructive activities of corporations. At last most of us must understand that the opposite is true: that the primary purpose of government is to protect those who run the economy from the outrage of injured citizens.

  Derrick Jensen

  Running, Believe, Government

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• If congress refuses to obey its own rules. If congress refuses to pass a balanced budget. If congress refuses to read the Bills. Then I say, sweep the place clean, limit their terms, and send them HOME!

  Rand Paul

  Home, Government, Term Limits

  FaceBook post by Rand Paul from Feb 13, 2013

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• The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Government, Organization, Purpose

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• Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Law Courts, Government, Libertarian Party

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• If you like small government you need to work hard at having a strong national defense that is not so militant. Personal liberty is the purpose of government, to protect liberty - not to run your personal life, not to run the economy, and not to pretend that we can tell the world how they ought to live.

  Ron Paul

  Running, Strong, Hard Work

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• The provisions we have made [for our government] are such as please ourselves; they answer the substantial purposes of government and of justice, and other purposes than these should not be answered.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Government, Justice, Purpose

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• The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else.

  William Beveridge

  Money, Freedom, Government

  "Voluntary Action" by William Beveridge, (Ch. 12), 1948.

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