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.
It [a republic] is the form of government which divides us the least.
We stand equally against government by a plutocracy and government by a mob.
An invention is something that was “impossible” up to then—that’s why governments grant patents.
While human government exists the tendency to abuse power will remain.
Cabinet governments educate the nation; the presidential does not educate it, and may corrupt it.
A constitutional sovereign must in the common course of government be a man of but common ability.
There is nothing worse than anarchy, that is to say living without government and without laws.
Governments are machines for producing and implementing legal frameworks.
Governments do not like to face radical remedies; it is easier to let politics predominate.