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Government Quotes

Jefferson leads this page, followed by Milton Friedman, Robert LeFevre and Lincoln. Most of it is political philosophy, with a few jokes mixed in: P. J. O’Rourke in Parliament of Whores (1991) says giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys, and Will Rogers, in 1935, said a comedian needs no credit when the whole government is working for him.

Two well-known lines are flagged. “Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants” is credited to William Penn, but the oldest wording the notes cite is from a 1949 speech by Norman Vincent Peale. The one about a government big enough to give you everything being big enough to take it away is credited to Barry Goldwater, and the notes point to older versions of it.

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Most quoted on government:

[T]he tested norm is the family unit. It is the building brick of society. Governments will come, governments will go, but this endures.

Lee Kuan Yew

Consider in fact, a body of six hundred and fifty-eight miscellaneous persons, set to consult about "business," with twenty-seven millions, mostly fools, assiduously listening to them, and checking and criticising them. Was there ever, since the world began, will there ever be till the world end, any "business" accomplished in these circumstances?

Thomas Carlyle

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding females.

Abraham Lincoln

Only perhaps in the United States, which alone of countries can do without governing,—every man being at least able to live, and move off into the wilderness, let Congress jargon as it will,—can such a form of so-called "Government" continue for any length of time to torment men with the semblance, when the indispensable substance is not there.

Thomas Carlyle

I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.

Henry David Thoreau Civil Disobedience (1849)

There are governments that claim that limiting religious liberty is necessary to protect social stability or the harmony of the country. Romero’s message is that this is [no] valid justification. [Civil or natural] rights protection defines what a legitimate social stability is, rather than the other way around.

Massimo Introvigne

But when they bring YOU in before public assemblies and government officials and authorities, do not become anxious about how or what YOU will speak in defense or what YOU will say; for the holy spirit will teach YOU in that very hour the things YOU ought to say.

Jesus

It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

Hubert Humphrey

That’s precisely what the founders left us: the power to adapt to changing times. They left us the keys to a system of self-government – the tool to do big and important things together that we could not possibly do alone.

Barack Obama Commencement Address at Ohio State University (2013)

If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means—to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal—would bring terrible retribution.

Louis Brandeis

The communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness which assiduously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of misrule.

Grover Cleveland Annual Message (1888)

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

Harry S. Truman

Government is a disease masquerading as its own cure.

Robert LeFevre

The final end of government is not to exert restraint but to do good.

Rufus Choate

Low inflation and government prudence may be harmful for economic development.

Ha-Joon Chang Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism (2008)

You should be glad that the government has provided for chain and bangles at their own expense, why are you feeling so bad about it?

Kalki Krishnamurthy

The Regime says a lot of things, nine-tenths of it lies and the other tenth wishful thinking.

Sheri S. Tepper The Visitor (2002)

Hopefully, the cooperation between the federal and state governments will continue to be strengthened for the well-being of the people.

Anwar Ibrahim Anwar Ibrahim (2022)

The strongest of all governments is that which is most free.

William Henry Harrison

He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.

Philip Massinger The Bondman (1623)

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