quotations about government
The Government of Man should be the Monarchy of Reason; it is too often a Democracy of Passions, or an Anarchy of Humours.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.
JOHN BASIL BARNHILL
"Indictment of Socialism No. 3", Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism
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
A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel.
FRANK HERBERT
Dune
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
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
Let the people think they govern, and they will be govern'd.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
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
Most traditional governments divide people, setting them against each other to weaken the society and make it governable.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
The Butlerian Jihad
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
EDWARD R. MURROW
attributed, People Before Profit
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
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
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
JAMES A. GARFIELD
letter to B. A. Hinsdale, April 21, 1880
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
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
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
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
A civil servant doesn't make jokes.
EUGENE IONESCO
The Killer
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;
An hour may lay it in the dust.
LORD BYRON
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
In all governments, there is a perpetual intestine struggle, open or secret, between Authority and Liberty, and neither of them can ever absolutely prevail in the contest.
DAVID HUME
"Of the Origin of Government", Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary