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Nothing’s more dull and negligent
Than an old lazy government,
That knows no interest of state,
But such as serves a present strait,
And, to patch up, or shift, will close
Or break alike with friends or foes;
That runs behindhand, and has spent
Its credit to the last extent;
And, the first time ’tis at a loss,
Has not one true friend, nor one cross.

— Samuel Butler Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

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Government

More quotes by Samuel Butler

Love is a boy by poets styl'd;
Then spare the rod and spoil the child.

Part II (1664)

Doubtless the pleasure is as great
Of being cheated as to cheat.

Part II (1664)

As men of inward light are wont
To turn their optics in upon 't.

Part III (1678)

For those that fly may fight again,
Which he can never do that's slain.

Part III (1678)

Have always been at daggers-drawing,
And one another clapper-clawing.

Part II (1664)

All Samuel Butler quotes →

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Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small.

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The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

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Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.

Leon Trotsky The Revolution Betrayed (1936)

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Samuel Butler (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.