Government Quotes

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.

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.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

Democracy needs support, and the best support for democracy comes from other democracies.

The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.

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

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.

Government is essentially immoral.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Financial crises require governments.

I think governments can't do much.

Democracy must learn to defend itself.

Democracy passes into despotism.

When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

As far as your personal goals are and what you actually want to do with your life, it should never have to do with the government. You should never depend on the government for your retirement, your financial security, for anything. If you do, you're screwed.