Skip to content

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:

victories were won under Thatcher, so victories can be won under this government.

Sasha Roseneil

the ringleader was a man she recognized — the son of a government minister. She says he was the most brutal

Iman al-Obeidi

One of them is 10-year-old Ayomikun Omoyiola, who was in 2014 invited by the Federal Government of Nigeria to receive a Peace Award through an art work she did.

Kunle Adewale

Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.

William Penn Misattributed

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Barry Goldwater Misattributed

The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.

Cicero Attributed

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence,—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

George Washington Misattributed

A National debt is a National blessing.

Daniel Webster Attributed

There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.

Abraham Lincoln Attributed

Fellow-citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne! Mercy and truth shall go before His face! Fellow-citizens! God reigns and the Government at Washington still lives!

James A. Garfield Disputed

Well, will anybody deny now that the government at Washington, as regards its own people, is the strongest government in the world at this hour? And for this simple reason, that it is based on the will, and the good will, of an instructed people.

John Bright Attributed Forty Thousand Quotations (1917)

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)

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free, none ever will.

Anatole France Misattributed

All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.

Thaddeus Stevens Misattributed

That government is the best which makes government unnecessary.

Wilhelm von Humboldt Attributed Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern English and Foreign Sources (1893)

Write on my gravestone: "Infidel, Traitor" — infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.

Wendell Phillips Attributed

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

George Washington Misattributed

By making everything secure [governments] have degraded the quality of secrecy.

Heather Brooke Attributed

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Ronald Reagan Misattributed

The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

John Locke Misattributed

Related topics