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Author A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Keyword A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Proverbs A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Government A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.---Gerald R. Ford, 1913 - 2006 A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. ---Barry Goldwater A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul---George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950 Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate? ---Will Rogers Applause, mingled with boos and hisses, is about all that the average voter is able or willing to contribute to public life. ---Elmer Davis Bush Sr. was a jerk, Quayle an idiot, Clinton was atrocious and disgusting, most of those who persecuted him were hypocritical, Gore is shallow and weak, Bradley is an idealist, Bush Jr. a fool, and all of the independent candidates act like they're on drugs. ---David Borenstein Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it. ---Richard Lamm Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. ---James Russell Lowell Democracy is an abuse of statistics. ---Jorge Luis Borges Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. ---H. L. Mencken Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. ---Sydney J. Harris Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for
economists. Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. - H. L. Mencken Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us. ---P. J. O'Rourke Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed. - I. F. Stone For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. ---Jonathan Swift Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke Government can't do anything for you except in proportion as it can do something to you.---William F. Buckley, Jr, 1925 - 2008 Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.---Thomas Paine Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness. ---Fred Woodworth Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.---Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1911 - 2004 Government is not an exact science.---Louis Dembitz Brandeis, 1856 - 1941 Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; 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 Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.--- Frederic Bastiat Governments should not possess instruments of coercion and violence denied to their citizens. ---Edgar A. Suter Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. ---William E. Gladstone I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time. - H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956) If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also. ---Fred Woodworth If men were angels, no government would be necessary. ---James Madison If people behaved like governments, you'd call the cops. ---Kelvin Throop I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. ---Alexander Woollcott In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of the citizens to give to the other. - Voltaire (1694 - 1778) In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? ---Saint Augustine In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office. - Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914) It is a noble purpose of government to provide jobs for those of us who are otherwise unemployable. - Stephen Millich (1941 - ) It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.---Voltaire It is doubtful that the government knows much more than the public does about how government [Economic] policies will work. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. ---Thomas Jefferson It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. ---John W. Gardner It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.---Robert H. Jackson It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. ---Tom Stoppard Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. ---James Madison Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. ---Otto von Bismarck Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. ---Benjamin Franklin Let the people think they govern and they will be governed. ---William Penn Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. ---Denis Diderot Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. ---Larry Flynt Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time. ---Winston Churchill Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. ---Lily Tomlin No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. ---Abraham Lincoln Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln. ---Will Rogers Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. ---Louis D. Brandeis Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.---Thomas Paine, 1737 - 1809 Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it. ---Cullen Hightower That government is best which governs least. ---Thomas Paine That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. ---Thomas Jefferson The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. ---Winston Churchill The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. ---Ronald Reagan The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. ---Lord Acton The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. ---Wilhelm Reich The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return. ---Gore Vidal The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. - Ronald Reagan The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. ---Milton Friedman The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy. ---Woodrow Wilson The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security. ---Thomas Paine The mistakes made by Congress wouldn't be so bad if the next Congress didn't keep trying to correct them. ---Cullen Hightower The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life - the sick, the needy and the handicapped. -Hubert Horatio Humphrey, US Vice President (1911-1978) The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts. -Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (1632-1677) 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 The penalty for not participating in government is to be governed by The trade of governing has always been monopolized by the most ignorant and the most rascally individuals of mankind. -Thomas Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809) The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion. ---Lewis Mumford The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government. ---Henry Ward Beecher There has never been a perfect government, because men have passions; and if they did not have passions, there would be no need for government. This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. ---Will Rogers To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places. ---Wendell Phillips To rule is easy, to govern difficult. ---Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Very few established institutions, governments and constitutions ... are Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down. ---Robert Orben We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826) We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. ---Winston Churchill You don't pay taxes - they take taxes. ---Chris Rock |