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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.

Random quote on Government

Most quoted on government:

Which is the best government? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln

A rational anarchist believes that concepts, such as "state" and "society" and "government" have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals.

Robert A. Heinlein The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966)

[M]en who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.

Sydney Smith

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken

Bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt.

Tacitus

Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for.

Adlai Stevenson II

Government doesn’t louse up everything, but it sure louses up a lot of what it promises to deliver.

Jim Geraghty Ten Reasons We Can't, and Shouldn't, Be Nordic (2018)

If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law. It invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy.

Louis Brandeis

For forms of government let fools contest;
Whate'er is best administer'd is best.

Alexander Pope

As the saying goes, a government that robs Peter to pay Paul can count on getting Paul’s vote.

Glenn Reynolds

Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain.

John F. Kennedy

With more and more governments, however crude and experimental, dedicated to industrial democracy and universal brotherhood, the era of peace and joy in living will come on earth.

Art Young Art Young: His Life and Times (1939)

What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.

Tom Clancy Kudlow & Cramer interview (2003)

Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been found that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery.

Benjamin Disraeli

If a private enterprise is a failure, it closes down—unless it can get a government subsidy to keep it going; if a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. I challenge you to find exceptions.

Milton Friedman

The chief evil is unlimited government, and nobody is qualified to wield unlimited power. The powers which modern democracy possesses would be even more intolerable in the hands of some small elite.

Friedrich Hayek

Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government.

William Lyon Mackenzie King Message of the Carillon (1927)

When constabulary duty's to be done
A policeman's lot is not a happy one.

W. S. Gilbert

To prevent government from becoming corrupt and tyrannous, its organization and methods should be as simple as possible, its functions be restricted to those necessary to the common welfare, and in all its parts it should be kept as close to the people and as directly within their control as may be.

Henry George Social Problems (1883)

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