Quotes on Governments

“The words of the President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately. It would be exceedingly easy to set the country all by the ears and foment hatreds and jealousies, which, by destroying faith and confidence, would help nobody and harm everybody. The end would be the destruction of all progress.”
― Calvin Coolidge, Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“Well, they’re going to elect that Superman Hoover, and he’s going to have some trouble. He’s going to have to spend money, but it won’t be enough. Then the Democrats will come in. But they don’t know anything about money.
― Calvin Coolidge, To his Secret Service man, Edmund Starling”

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“The collection of taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“Democracy is not a tearing down; it is a building up. It does not denial of the divine right of kings; it asserts the divine right of all men.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“It is our theory that the people own the government, not that the government should own the people.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“The people cannot look to legislation generally for success. Industry, thrift, character, are not conferred by act or resolve. Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government

“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government, Goals

“It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness. They live in an artificial atmosphere of adulation and exaltation which sooner or later impairs their judgment. They are in grave danger of becoming careless and arrogant.”

Calvin Coolidge, Government, Success

“It is a great advantage to a President, and a major source of safety to the country, for him to know that he is not a great man. When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions.”
― Calvin Coolidge, Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, Government, Management

“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.

Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.”

Calvin Coolidge, Society, Government, Goals, Freedom

“This country would not be a land of opportunity, America could not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies.”

Calvin Coolidge, Society, Government

“There is only one form of political strategy in which I have any confidence, and that is to try to do the right thing and sometimes be able to succeed.”
― Calvin Coolidge, The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, Goals, Government, Success

“The only way I know to drive out evil from the country is by the constructive method of filling it with good. The country is better off tranquilly considering its blessings and merits, and earnestly striving to secure more of them, than it would be in nursing hostile bitterness about its deficiencies and faults.”
― Calvin Coolidge, Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge, Goals, Government

“It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.”

Calvin Coolidge, Goals, Government

“Can’t let the government tell me how my future lookin’.”

Kendrick Lamar, Goals, Government

“No peace and security among mankind—let alone common friendship—can ever exist as long as people think that governments get their authority from God and that religion is to be propagated by force of arms.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration

John Locke, Friendship, Government, Belief, Anger and Fighting

“...The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom: for in all the states of created beings capable of laws, where there is no law, there is no freedom: for liberty is, to be free from restraint and violence from others; which cannot be, where there is no law: but freedom is not, as we are told, a liberty for every man to do what he lists: (for who could be free, when every other man's humour might domineer over him?) but a liberty to dispose, and order as he lists, his person, actions, possessions, and his whole property, within the allowance of those laws under which he is, and therein not to be subject to the arbitrary will of another, but freely follow his own.”

John Locke, Government, Freedom

“Men being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

John Locke, Government, Freedom

“Wherever, therefore, any number of men so unite into one society, as to quit everyone his executive power of the law of nature, and to resign it to the public, there, and there only, is a political or civil society. [....] Hence it is evident that absolute monarchy, which by some men [e.g., Hobbes] is counted the only government in the world, is indeed inconsistent with civil society, and so can be no form of civil government at all.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

John Locke, Government, Society

“The power of the legislative, being derived from the people by a positive voluntary grant and institution, can be no other than what that positive grant conveyed, which being only to make laws, and not to make legislators, the legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

John Locke, Power, Government

“As usurpation is the exercise of power, which another hath a right to; so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which no body can have a right to. And this is making use of the power any one has in his hands, not for the good of those who are under it, but for his own private separate advantage. When the governor, however intitled, makes not the law, but his will, the rule; and his commands and actions are not directed to the preservation of the properties of his people, but the satisfaction of his own ambition, revenge, covetousness, or any other irregular passion.”
― John Locke, Second Treatise of Government

John Locke, Power, Government

“For the civil government can give no new right to the church, nor the church to the civil government. So that, whether the magistrate join himself to any church, or separate from it, the church remains always as it was before — a free and voluntary society. It neither requires the power of the sword by the magistrate’s coming to it, nor does it lose the right of instruction and excommunication by his going from it. This is the fundamental and immutable right of a spontaneous society — that it has power to remove any of its members who transgress the rules of its institution; but it cannot, by the accession of any new members, acquire any right of jurisdiction over those that are not joined with it.”
― John Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration

John Locke, Belief, Government

“I was ecstatic when they re-named "French fries" as "freedom fries." Grown men and women in positions of power in the U.S. government showing themselves as idiots.”

Johnny Depp, Government

Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.

Clint Eastwood, Success, Government

“Members of the Senate and House, if they want to send troops into war, should be forced to send a family member. That would really make everyone stop and go, ‘Ohhh-kaaay.'”

Will Ferrell, Government

“I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”

Will Smith, Government

“The consolidation of the states into one vast empire, sure to be aggressive abroad and despotic at home, will be the certain precursor of ruin which has overwhelmed all that preceded it.”

Robert E Lee, Government

“No nation can maintain a position of leadership in the world of today unless it develops to the full its scientific and technological resources. No government adequately meets its responsibilities unless it generously and intelligently supports and encourages the work of science in the university, industry and in its own laboratories.”

Harry Truman, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government

“The Communist party must control the guns.”

Mao Zedong, Goals, Government

“Political power grows out of the barrel of the gun...”

Mao Zedong, Government

“Hence, as long as China is divided among the imperialist powers, the various cliques of warlords cannot under any circumstances come to terms, and whatever compromises they may reach will only be temporary.”
― Mao Tse-tung, On Guerrilla Warfare

Mao Zedong, Government

“Imperialism will not last long because it always does evil things. It persists in grooming and supporting reactionaries in all countries who are against the people, it has forcibly seized many colonies and semi-colonies and many military bases, and it threatens the peace with atomic war. Thus, forced by imperialism to do so, more than 90 per cent of the people of the world are rising or will rise in struggle against it. Yet, imperialism is still alive, still running amuck in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In the West imperialism is still oppressing the people at home. This situation must change. It is the task of the people of the whole world to put an end to the aggression and oppression perpetrated by imperialism, and chiefly by U.S. imperialism.”
― Mao Tse-tung, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung 毛主席语录: The Little Red Book

Mao Zedong, Government

“Commandism is wrong in any type of work, because in overstepping the level of political consciousness of the masses and violating the principle of voluntary mass action it reflects the disease of impetuosity. Our comrades must not assume that everything they themselves understand is understood by the masses. Whether the masses understand it and are ready to take action can be discovered only by going into their midst and making investigations. If we do so, we can avoid commandism. Tailism in any type of work is also wrong, because in falling below the level of political consciousness of the masses and violating the principle of leading the masses forward it reflects the disease of dilatoriness. Our comrades must not assume that the masses have no understanding of what they themselves do not yet understand. It often happens that the masses outstrip us and are eager to advance a step and that nevertheless our comrades fail to act as leaders of the masses and tail behind certain backward elements, reflecting their views and, moreover, mistaking them for those of the broad masses.”

Mao Zedong, Government

“A potential revolutionary situation exists in any country where the government consistently fails in its obligation to ensure at least a minimally decent standard of life for the great majority of its citizens.”
― Mao Tse-tung, Mao Tse-Tung On Guerrilla Warfare

Mao Zedong, Government

“Mao recalled: "Very many members of our family have given their lives, killed by the Kuomintang and the American imperialists. You grew up eating honey, and thus far you have never known suffering. In the future, if you do not become a rightist, but rather a centrist, I shall be satisfied. You have never suffered--how can you be a leftist?"”

Mao Zedong, Government

“Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed.”

Mao Zedong, Government, Anger and Fighting

“There are some militarists who say: ‘We are not interested in politics but only in the profession of arms.’ It is vital that these simple-minded militarists be made to realize the relationship that exists between politics and military affairs. Military action is a method used to attain a political goal. While military affairs and political affairs are not identical, it is impossible to isolate one from the other.”

Mao Zedong, Government, Anger and Fighting

“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.”

Mao Zedong, Government, Anger and Fighting

“Whether we and our politicians know it or not, Nature is party to all our deals and decisions, and she has more votes, a longer memory, and a sterner sense of justice than we do.”

Wendell Berry, Nature, Government, Justice

“It is certain, I think, that the best government is the one that governs the least. But there is a much-neglected corollary: the best citizen is the one who least needs governing.”

Wendell Berry, Society, Government

“Never ever depend on governments or institutions to solve any major problems. All social change comes from the passion of individuals.”

Margaret Mead, Society, Government

“Never depend upon institutions or government to solve any problem. All social movements are founded by, guided by, motivated and seen through by the passion of individuals.”

Margaret Mead, Society, Government

“Every student of political science, every student of political economy, every student of economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation; that the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race and you have a slave race.”

Marcus Garvey, Government, Business, Society

“Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Society

“In politics, If you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“Socialists are happy until they run out of other people's money.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“Some Socialists seem to believe that people should be numbers in a State computer. We believe they should be individuals. We are all unequal. No one, thank heavens, is like anyone else, however much the Socialists may pretend otherwise. We believe that everyone has the right to be unequal but to us every human being is equally important.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“Left-wing zealots have often been prepared to ride roughshod over due process and basic considerations of fairness when they think they can get away with it. For them the ends always seems to justify the means. That is precisely how their predecessors came to create the gulag.

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“The Russians are bent on world dominance, and they are rapidly acquiring the means to become the most powerful imperial nation the world has seen. The men in the Soviet Politburo do not have to worry about the ebb and flow of public opinion. They put guns before butter, while we put just about everything before guns.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“I don't think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“Socialists cry “Power to the people”, and raise the clenched fist as they say it. We all know what they really mean - power over people, power to the State.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government

“As Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990 I had the opportunity to put these convictions into effect in economic policy -

We intended policy in the 1980s to be directed towards fundamentally different goals from those of most of the post-war ear. We believed that since jobs (in a free society) did not depend on government but upon satisfying customers, there was no point in setting targets for 'full' employment. Instead, government should create the right framework of sound money, low taxes, light regulation and flexible markets (including labour markets) to allow prosperity and employment to grow.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Goals

“I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand 'I have a problem, it is the government's job to cope with it!' or 'I have a problem, I will go and get a grant to cope with it!'; 'I am homeless, the government must house me!' and so they are casting their problems on society and who is society?

"There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families, and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.

"It is our duty to look after ourselves and then also to help look after our neighbour and life is a reciprocal business and people have got the entitlements too much in mind without the obligations.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Society

“Law and order is a social service. Crime and the fear which the threat of crime induces can paralyse whole communities, keep lonely and vulnerable elderly people shut up in their homes, scar young lives and raise to cult status the swaggering violent bully who achieves predatory control over the streets. I suspect that there would be more support and less criticism than today's political leaders imagine for a large shift of resources from Social Security benefits to law and order - as long as rhetoric about getting tough on crime was matched by practice.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Society

“I think we've been through a period where too many people have been given to understand that if they have a problem, it's the government's job to cope with it. 'I have a problem, I'll get a grant.' 'I'm homeless, the government must house me.' They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations. There's no such thing as entitlement, unless someone has first met an obligation.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Society

“Do you know, one of the greatest problems of our age is that we are governed by people who care more about feelings than they do about thoughts and ideas? Now, thoughts and ideas, that interests me.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Society

“There are significant differences between the American and European version of capitalism. The American traditionally emphasizes the need for limited government, light regulations, low taxes and maximum labour-market flexibility. Its success has been shown above all in the ability to create new jobs, in which it is consistently more successful than Europe.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Business

“When I'm out of politics I'm going to run a business, it'll be called rent-a-spine.”

Margaret Thatcher, Government, Business

“A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age.”

Robert Frost, Government

“The trouble with practical jokes is that very often they get elected.”

Will Rogers, Government

“I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.”

Will Rogers, Government

“If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of Congress?”

Will Rogers, Government

“A fool and his money are soon elected.”

Will Rogers, Government

“The short memories of the American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.”

Will Rogers, Government

“I am not a member of any organized political party — I am a Democrat.”

Will Rogers, Government

“The more you observe politics, the more you've got to admit that each party is worse than the other.”

Will Rogers, Government

“The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”

Will Rogers, Government

“Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're actually paying for.”

Will Rogers, Government

“There are men running governments who shouldn't be allowed to play with matches.”

Will Rogers, Government

“Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”

Will Rogers, Government

“There is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.”

Will Rogers, Government

“The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.”

Will Rogers, Government, Society

“How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society?”

David Hume, Government, Society

“Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.”

David Hume, Government, Society

“It is, therefore, a just political maxim, that every man must be supposed a knave.”

David Hume, Government

“[R]evolutions of government cannot be effected by the mere force of argument and reasoning.”
― ‘A Treatise Of Human Nature’.

David Hume, Government

“There’s not a party, a congressman, a senator, etc. elected that will fix your life. You have to fix your life.”

Dave Ramsey, Government, Life, Goals

“No one got rich on a government program. Do not choose to be a common man. You can be uncommon.”

Dave Ramsey, Government, Finance, Life

“If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Business

“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink, and make the combination worthless.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“I think the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem and very often makes the problem worse.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Mistakes

“Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“Government has three primary functions. It should provide for the military defense of the nation. It should enforce contracts between individuals. It should protect citizens from crimes against themselves or their property.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Goals

“When government – in pursuit of good intentions – tries to rearrange the economy, legislate morality, or help special interests, the cost comes in inefficiency, lack of motivation, and loss of freedom.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Society, Freedom

“Government should be a referee, not an active player.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“The greatest advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science and literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Society

“The lack of balance in governmental activity reflects primarily the failure to separate sharply the question what activities it is appropriate for government to finance from the question what activities it is appropriate for government to administer—a distinction that is important in other areas of government activity as well.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“Freedom is a rare and delicate plant. Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom.”

Milton Friedman, Freedom, Power, Government

“Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“Columbus did not seek a new route to the Indies in response to a majority directive.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Goals

“One man’s opportunism is another man’s statesmanship.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“Governments never learn. Only people learn.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Intelligence/Wisdom

“Is it really true that political self-interest is nobler somehow than economic self-interest?”

Milton Friedman, Government, Finance

“Inflation is taxation without legislation.”

Milton Friedman, Government, Finance

“I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non-work.”

Milton Friedman, Government

“You politicians remain professional because the voters remain amateur.”

Katharine Hepburn, Government

“Of course, a great deal of our onslaught on Mother Nature is not really lack of intelligence but a lack of compassion for future generations and the health of the planet: sheer selfish greed for short-term benefits to increase the wealth and power of individuals, corporations and governments. The rest is due to thoughtlessness, lack of education, and poverty. In other words, there seems to be a disconnect between our clever brain and our compassionate heart. True wisdom requires both thinking with our head and understanding with our heart.”
- From The Book of Hope: A Survival Guide for Trying Times

Jane Goodall, Intelligence/Wisdom, Kindness, Nature, Society, Business, Government

"It is only the novice in political economy who thinks it is the duty of government to make its citizens happy – government has no such office."

Walt Whitman, Government

"The day I walked down the aisle at St. Paul’s Cathedral, I felt that my personality was taken away from me, and I was taken over by the royal machine."

Princess Diana, Government, Life

"It’s vital that the monarchy keeps in touch with the people. It’s what I try and do."

Princess Diana, Government, Goals

"I never get involved in politics."

Alice in Wonderland, Government

"We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organized, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life, liberty and property."

Susan B Anthony, Government, Freedom

"Preventing war is the work of politicians, establishing peace is the work of educationists."

Maria Montessori, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government, Anger and Fighting

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war."

Maria Montessori, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government, Anger and Fighting

"One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship."

George Orwell, Government

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

George Orwell, Government

"Big Brother is Watching You."

George Orwell, Government

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me."

George Orwell, Government, Power

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

George Orwell, Government

"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer..."

Thomas Paine, Society, Government

"Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise."

Thomas Paine, Government

"Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other."

Thomas Paine, Government

"...taxes are not raised to carry on wars, but that wars are raised to carry on taxes."

Thomas Paine, Government

"For all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have the right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever, and tho' himself might deserve some decent degree of honours of his cotemporaries, yet his descendants might be far too unworthy to inherit them."

Thomas Paine, Government

"Small islands, not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something absurd, in supposing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island."

Thomas Paine, Government

"One of the strongest natural proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it, otherwise, she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an ass for a lion."

Thomas Paine, Society, Government

"Society is produced by our wants, and government by wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher."

Thomas Paine, Society, Government, Happiness

"Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law."

Thomas Paine, Belief, Government

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

Thomas Paine, Government

"Government works best under the glare of public scrutiny. Absent such scrutiny, abuses occur."

Stephen Hawking, Government

"Most officially “poor” Americans today have things that middle-class Americans of an earlier time could only dream about—including color TV, videocassette recorders, microwave ovens, and their own cars. Moreover, half of all poor households have air-conditioning. Leftist redistribution of income could never accomplish that, because there are simply not enough rich people for their wealth to have such a dramatic effect on the living standards of the poor, even if it was all confiscated and redistributed. Moreover, many attempts at redistributing wealth in various countries around the world have ended up redistributing poverty.

After all, rich people can see the political handwriting on the wall, and can often take their money and leave the country, long before a government program can get started to confiscate it. They are also likely to take with them skills and entrepreneurial experience that are even harder to replace than the money."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Wealth, Society

"The welfare state is the oldest con game in the world. First you take people's money away quietly and then you give some of it back to them flamboyantly."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Wealth

"It was Thomas Edison who brought us electricity, not the Sierra Club. It was the Wright brothers who got us off the ground, not the Federal Aviation Administration. It was Henry Ford who ended the isolation of millions of Americans by making the automobile affordable, not Ralph Nader. Those who have helped the poor the most have not been those who have gone around loudly expressing 'compassion' for the poor, but those who found ways to make industry more productive and distribution more efficient, so that the poor of today can afford things that the affluent of yesterday could only dream about."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Business, Society

"No government of the left has done as much for the poor as capitalism has. Even when it comes to the redistribution of income, the left talks the talk but the free market walks the walk.

What do the poor most need? They need to stop being poor. And how can that be done, on a mass scale, except by an economy that creates vastly more wealth? Yet the political left has long had a remarkable lack of interest in how wealth is created. As far as they are concerned, wealth exists somehow and the only interesting question is how to redistribute it."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Wealth, Society

"What is history but the story of how politicians have squandered the blood and treasure of the human race?"

Thomas Sowell, Government, Wealth, Society

"It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."

Thomas Sowell, Government

"If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Wealth

"If politicians stopped meddling with things they don't understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates."

Thomas Sowell, Government

"Competition does a much more effective job than government at protecting consumers."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Business

"The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Society

"Unfortunately, the real minimum wage is always zero, regardless of the laws, and that is the wage that many workers receive in the wake of the creation or escalation of a government-mandated minimum wage, because they lose their jobs or fail to find jobs when they enter the labor force. Making it illegal to pay less than a given amount does not make a worker’s productivity worth that amount—and, if it is not, that worker is unlikely to be employed."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Business

"Bailing out people who made ill-advised mortgages makes no more sense that bailing out people who lost their life savings in Las Vegas casinos."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Life

"The fact that the market is not doing what we wish it would do is no reason to automatically assume that the government would do better."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Business

"It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it."

Thomas Sowell, Government

"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."

Thomas Sowell, Government, Business

"Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you -- either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation."

John Wayne, Government

"No government, no multinational corporation, no agency at all could counter the mandates of a unified world community. And that is why so much energy and resources are invested in division and separation."

John Lewis, Government, Business, Society

"What is the purpose of a nation if not to empower human beings to live better together than they could individually? When government fails to meet the basic needs of humanity for food, shelter, clothing, and even more important—the room to grow and evolve—the people will begin to rely on one another, to pool their resources and rise above the artificial limitations of tradition or law. Each of us has something significant to contribute to society be it physical, material, intellectual, emotional, or spiritual."

John Lewis, Society, Government

"I meet so many ambitious young politicians and leaders who want to jump to the head of the line. They do not know how we arrived at this point in our history as a nation, but they believe they should be appointed to lead us into the future. They think that because they are educated, articulate, and talented someone should usher them down the red carpet to a throne of leadership. But real leaders are not appointed. They emerge out of the masses of the people and rise to the forefront through the circumstances of their lives. Either their inner journey or their human experience prepares them to take that role. They do not nominate themselves. They are called into service by a spirit moving through a people that points to them as the embodiment of the cause they serve."

John Lewis, Government

"Governments and corporations do not live. They have no power, no capacity in and of themselves. They are given life and derive all their authority from their ability to assist, benefit, and transform the lives of the people they touch. All authority emanates from the consent of the governed and the satisfaction of the customer."

John Lewis, Government, Business, Society

"There was a time when politicians needed to be great orators because the people themselves were grappling with the challenges of conscience, trying to perceive what is “right” and what is “wrong.” But today, not only do we miss the eloquence of public speaking, but the moral compass of so many leaders seems to be skewed."

John Lewis, Government

"In terms of our elected officials, I think we need to ask...: How far should we go with our need to know before we completely veer off into the personal and the private and leave behind any chance of having a legitimate debate or discussion or discourse about the issues at hand?"

John Lewis, Government

"As citizens, we knew we had ceded some of our individual rights to society in order to live together as a community. But we did not believe this social contract included support for an immoral system. Since the people invested government with its authority, we understood that we had to obey the law. But when law became suppressive and tyrannical, when human law violated divine principles, we felt it was not only our right, but our duty to disobey. As Henry Thoreau strongly believed, to comply with an unjust system is to accept abuse. It is not the role of the citizen to follow the government down a path that violates his or her own conscience."

John Lewis, Society, Government, Freedom

"We are involved now in a serious revolution. This nation is still a place of cheap political leaders who build their careers on immoral compromises and ally themselves with open forms of political, economic and social exploitation. What political leader here can stand up and say, "My party is the party of principles?"

John Lewis, Government

"Judges do read the newspapers and are affected, not by the weather of the day, as distinguished constitutional law professor Paul Freund once said, but by the climate of the era."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Government

"They're not a question of additional benefits. I mean, they touch every aspect of life. Your partner is sick. Social Security. I mean, it's pervasive. It's not as though, well, there's this little Federal sphere and it's only a tax question. It's as Justice Kennedy said, 1100 statutes, and it affects every area of life. And so he was really diminishing what the State has said is marriage. You're saying, no, State said two kinds of marriage; the full marriage, and then this sort of skim milk marriage."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Government

"the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Freedom, Society, Government

"A constitution, as important as it is, will mean nothing unless the people are yearning for liberty and freedom."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Government, Freedom

"The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman’s life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices."

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sex, Government

"The Marines I have seen around the world have the cleanest bodies, the filthiest minds, the highest morale, and the lowest morals of any group of animals I have ever seen. Thank God for the United States Marine Corps!"

Eleanor Roosevelt, Government

"In my country we go to prison first and then become president."

Nelson Mandela, Government

"In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill... we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one."

Plato, Government

"One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."

Plato, Government

"The heaviest penalty for declining to rule is to be ruled by someone inferior to yourself."

Plato, Government

"It is the purpose of government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Government

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Government

"There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America. No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Government

"The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Freedom, Government

"Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Government

"The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Business, Government

"Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Government

"For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Business, Government

"Presidents are selected, not elected."

FDR- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Government

"It is substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government."

George Washington, Government

"The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible."

George Washington, Government, Society

"The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. ... The Nation, prompted by ill-will and resentment, sometimes impels to war the Government, contrary to the best calculations of policy. The Government sometimes participates in the national propensity, and adopts through passion what reason would reject; at other times, it makes the animosity of the nation subservient to projects of hostility instigated by pride, ambition, and other sinister and pernicious motives. The peace often, sometimes perhaps the liberty, of Nations has been the victim."

George Washington, Government, Society

"...overgrown military establishments, which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty."

George Washington, Government, Freedom

"Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."

George Washington, Government, Society

"The common and continual mischief's of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and the duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it. It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passion."

George Washington, Government

"As Mankind becomes more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct themselves as worthy members of the community are equally entitled to the protections of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the foremost nations of justice and liberality."

George Washington, Government, Freedom

"Nothing can illustrate these observations more forcibly, than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of times and circumstances, under which our Republic assumed its rank among the Nations; The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epoch when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period, the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent, the Treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labours of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government; the free cultivation of Letters, the unbounded extension of Commerce, the progressive refinement of Manners, the growing liberality of sentiment... have had a meliorating influence on mankind and increased the blessings of Society. At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be entirely their own."

George Washington, Intelligence/Wisdom, Happiness, Government, Society

"However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion."

George Washington, Government

"In politics as in philosophy, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy."

George Washington, Government

"A primary object should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? And what duty more pressing than communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?"

George Washington, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government, Freedom

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

". . . The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Freedom

"It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Freedom

"The equal rights of man, and the happiness of every individual, are now acknowledged to be the only legitimate objects of government."

Thomas Jefferson, Justice, Happiness, Government

"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"Some are whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are tories, serviles, aristocrats, &c. The latter fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Power

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions. But laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Society

"When the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the government, it was observed in their consultation that he had never on any occasion said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not. They did so. However [Dr. Rush] observed the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that, which he passed over without notice... I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets & believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system than he himself did."

Thomas Jefferson, Belief, Government

"And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, ....whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those persons, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or accidental condition of circumstance."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"...vast accession of strength from their younger recruits, who having nothing in them of the feelings or principles of ’76 now look to a single and splendid government of an Aristocracy, founded on banking institutions and monied in corporations under the guise and cloak of their favored branches of manufactures commerce and navigation, riding and ruling over the plundered ploughman and beggared yeomanry."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Business

"...legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Belief

"History, in general, only informs us what bad government is."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry..."

Thomas Jefferson, Government, Belief

"We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

Thomas Jefferson, Government

"I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them."

Thomas Jefferson, Happiness, Government

"I look forward to a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose."

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government, Society

"The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all."

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government

"Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive."

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government, Society, Criticism

"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. "

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government, Goals

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute - where no Catholic prelate would tell the President (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishioners for whom to vote - where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference - and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the President who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.

I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish - where no public official either requests or accepts instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source - where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials - and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all."

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Belief, Government

"If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all—except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty."

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government

"If by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people-their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties-someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal", then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

JFK- John F. Kennedy, Government

"No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!"

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Government does not solve problems. It subsidizes them."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress."

Ronald Reagan, Belief, Government

"Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"The federal government did not create the states; the states created the federal government."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Our natural, inalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation from government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment."

Ronald Reagan, Government, Freedom

"It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"I have left orders to be awakened at any time during national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

Ronald Reagan, Government

"I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts."

Ronald Reagan, Government, Freedom

"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, Government

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official."

Teddy Roosevelt, Government

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today."

Teddy Roosevelt, Government

"When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer 'Present' or 'Not Guilty'."

Teddy Roosevelt, Government

"A vote is like a rifle: its usefulness depends upon the character of the user."

Teddy Roosevelt, Government

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."

Teddy Roosevelt, Government

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."

Teddy Roosevelt, Government

"The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law."

Aristotle, Society, Government

"I have gained this by philosophy; I do without being ordered what some are constrained to do by their fear of the law."

Aristotle, Intelligence/Wisdom, Government

"Loyalty to the nation all the time, loyalty to the government when it deserves it."

Mark Twain, Government

"An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

Martin Luther King Jr., Government

"One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."

Martin Luther King Jr., Government

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal."

Martin Luther King Jr., Government

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."

Abraham Lincoln, Government

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts, and beer."

Abraham Lincoln, Government

"Elections belong to the people. It's their decision. If they decide to turn their back on the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters."

Abraham Lincoln, Government

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

Abraham Lincoln, Government, Freedom

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

Gandhi, Government

"Look back over the past, with its changing empires that rose and fell, and you can foresee the future too."

Marcus Aurelius, Government

"We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle."

Winston Churchill, Government

"Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have."

Winston Churchill, Government

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."

Winston Churchill, Government

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."

Winston Churchill, Government

"We sleep safely at night because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would harm us."

Winston Churchill, Government

"The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

Winston Churchill, Government

"The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately."

Bertrand Russell, Belief, Government

"Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them."

Bertrand Russell, Government

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."

Aesop, Government

"It is better to risk saving a guilty person than to condemn an innocent one."

Voltaire, Government

"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong."

Voltaire, Government

"A throne is only a bench covered with velvet."

Napoleon Bonaparte, Government

"When a government is dependent upon bankers for money, they and not the leaders of the government control the situation, since the hand that gives is above the hand that takes. Money has no motherland; financiers are without patriotism and without decency; their sole object is gain."

Napoleon Bonaparte, Government

"In politics, stupidity is not a handicap."

Napoleon Bonaparte, Government

"The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them."

Karl Marx, Government

"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian."

Henry Ford, Government

"I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. These two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death."

George Carlin, Government, Belief

"Conservatives want live babies so they can train them to be dead soldiers."

George Carlin, Government

"Conservatives say if you don’t give the rich more money, they will lose their incentive to invest. As for the poor, they tell us they’ve lost all incentive because we’ve given them too much money."

George Carlin, Government

"If you have selfish, ignorant citizens, you’re going to have selfish, ignorant leaders."

George Carlin, Government

"Bipartisan' usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out."

George Carlin, Government

"Although I broke a lot of laws as a teenager, I straightened out immediately upon turning eighteen, when I realized the state had a legal right to execute me."

George Carlin, Government

"In America, anyone can become president. That's the problem."

George Carlin, Government

"When one treats people with benevolence, justice, and righteousness, and reposes confidence in them, the army will be united in mind and all will be happy to serve their leaders."

Sun Tzu, Government, Management

"Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: (1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight; (2) he will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces; (3) he will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks; (4) he will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared; (5) he will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign."

Quotes

Famous and Original Quotes