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The really basic thing in government is policy. Bad administration, to be sure, can destroy good policy, but good administration can never save bad policy.

— Adlai Stevenson II

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Government

More quotes by Adlai Stevenson II

We can chart our future clearly and wisely only when we know the path which has led to the present.

Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be.

What I Think (1956)

She would rather light a candle than curse the darkness, and her glow has warmed the world.

I believe in the infinite wisdom that envelops and embraces me and from which I take direction, purpose, strength.

Essay in This I Believe : 2 (1952)

After four years at the United Nations I sometimes yearn for the peace and tranquillity of a political convention.

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

Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene (1589)

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

James Madison

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: Adlai Stevenson II (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.