quotations about government
For, as far as this life of mortals is concerned, which is spent and ended in a few days, what does it matter under whose government a dying man lives, if they who govern do not force him to impiety and iniquity?
ST. AUGUSTINE
The City of God
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.
FRANK HERBERT
Dune
Whether government be a good or a bad thing, it is fair that men of equal abilities and virtues should equally share in it; that they should receive the advantage of it as their right, or bear the burden of it as their duty.
ARISTOTLE
Politics
Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.
WALTER BAGEHOT
The English Constitution
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
EDWARD R. MURROW
attributed, People Before Profit
In early times the quantity of government is much more important than its quality. What you want is a comprehensive rule binding men together, making them do much the same things, telling them what to expect of each other--fashioning them alike, and keeping them so. What this rule is does not matter so much. A good rule is better than a bad one, but any rule is better than none; while, for reasons which a jurist will appreciate, none can be very good. But to gain that rule, what may be called the impressive elements of a polity are incomparably more important than its useful elements. How to get the obedience of men is the hard problem; what you do with that obedience is less critical.
WALTER BAGEHOT
Physics and Politics
When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are something to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honors are something to be ashamed of.
CONFUCIUS
The Wisdom of Confucius
Let the people think they govern, and they will be govern'd.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
A great sacrifice of liberty must necessarily be made in every government; yet even the authority, which confines liberty, can never, and perhaps ought never, in any constitution, to become quite entire and uncontrollable.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant.
BILL MAHER
When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden
We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their unalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
during her trial for voting in the presidential election of Nov. 1872
The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, Nov. 27, 1775
When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.
LAWRENCE LESSIG
keynote address at the "One Planet, One Net" symposium, October 10, 1998
The larger the slice taken by government, the smaller the cake available for everyone.
MARGARET THATCHER
Statecraft: Strategies for a Changing World
Government is like a sincere alcoholic, who does not want to cause irreparable damage to his liver and yet cannot give up excessive drinking.
N. S. SAKSENA
Terrorism History and Facets
Man, born in a family, is compelled to maintain society from necessity, from natural inclination, and from habit. The same creature, in his further progress, is engaged to establish political society, in order to administer justice, without which there can be no peace among them, nor safety, nor mutual intercourse. We are, therefore, to look upon all the vast apparatus of our government, as having ultimately no other object or purpose but the distribution of justice.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword, what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
RONALD REAGAN
attributed, The Age of Turbulence
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;
An hour may lay it in the dust.
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage