Of all tasks of government the most basic is to protect its citizens against violence.
—John Foster Dulles (1888–1959) American Republican Public Official, Lawyer
Democracy is an experiment, and the right of the majority to rule is no more inherent than the right of the minority to rule; and unless the majority represents sane, righteous, unselfish public sentiment, it has no inherent right
—William Allen White (1868–1944) American Editor, Politician, Author
When you meet the president, you ask yourself, “How did it ever occur to anybody that he should be governor much less president?
—Henry Kissinger (b.1923) American Diplomat, Academician
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
An honest man can feel no pleasure in the exercise of power over his fellow citizens … There has never been a moment of my life in which I should have relinquished for it the enjoyments of my family, my farm, my friends and books.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Where there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned
—Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st American President
In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of the state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
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 (1917–86) American Essayist, Drama Critic
The cadres of our Party and state are ordinary workers and not overlords sitting on the backs of the people.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
A man must first govern himself, ere he be fit to govern a family; and his family, ere he be fit to bear the government in the commonwealth.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
I think the best possible social program is a job
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
You will find that the State is the kind of organization which, though it does big things badly, does small things badly, too.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war on liberty, and that the democratic government is at least as bad as any of the other forms
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt…If the game runs sometime against us at home, we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
If, in my retirement to the humble station of a private citizen, I am accompanied with the esteem and approbation of my fellow citizens, trophies obtained by the bloodstained steel, or the tattered flags of the tented field, will never be envied. The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
It is easy to rule over the good.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
The divine right of kings may have been a plea for feeble tyrants, but the divine right of government is the keystone of human progress, and without it governments sink into police, and a nation is degraded into a mob.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Civil Service has itself become such a spoils system that a fed-to-the-teeth- with-bureaucracy public threatens to support a return to the old one. Once in a civil service job, one needs only to live to rise. It’s near impossible to be fired for incompetence, indifference, woeful attendance, insubordination, or even being caught red-handed in the cookie jar… When Congress passed the civil service act slightly more than 100 years ago after a disappointed job-seeker assassinated President Garfield, it surely didn’t have in mind that its baby would turn into such an uncivil monster.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
All government and exercise of power, no matter in what form, which is not based on love, and directed by knowledge, is tyranny.
—Anna Brownell Jameson (1794–1860) Irish-born Literary, Art Critic
I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it’s the government
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
Anything that keeps a politician humble is healthy for democracy
—Irish Blessing
An administration, like a machine, does not create. It carries on.
—Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900–44) French Novelist, Aviator
Industrial combination is not wrong in itself. The danger lies in taking government into partnership.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Men are to be guided only by their self-interests. Good government is a good balancing of these; and, except a keen eye and appetite for self-interest, requires no virtue in any quarter. To both parties it is emphatically a machine: to the discontented, a taxing-machine; to the contented, a machine for securing property. Its duties and its faults are not those of a father, but of an active parish-constable.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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