To govern is always to choose among disadvantages.
—Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) French General, Statesman
Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
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
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
The purpose of a written constitution is to bind up the several branches of government by certain laws, which, when they transgress, their acts shall become nullities; to render unnecessary an appeal to the people, or in other words a rebellion, on every infraction of their rights, on the peril that their acquiescence shall be construed into an intention to surrender those rights.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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 (1897–1957) Austrian Psychoanalyst
The king-times are fast finishing. There will be bloodshed like water, and tears like mist; but the peoples will conquer in the end. I shall not live to see it, but I foresee it.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The republic, as I at least understand it, means association, of which liberty is only an element, a necessary antecedent. It means association, a new philosophy of life, a divine Ideal that shall move the world, the only means of regeneration vouchsafed to the human race.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
Democracy is like a raft: It won’t sink, but you will always have your feet wet
—Russell B. Long (1918–2003) American Representative, Politician, Attorney
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want-and their kids pay for it
—Richard Lamm (1935–2021) American Politician
We all have the republican spirit in our veins, like syphilis in our bones. We are democratized and venerealized.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
If we can develop a class of educated men with nothing else to do but to better government, we ought to use them; and we ought to use them by having the profession of the politician recognized as essential to the welfare of the Republic.
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930) American President, Chief Justice
No man has a natural right to commit aggression on the natural rights of another; and this is all from which the laws ought to restrain him.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
—Aesop (620–564 BCE) Greek Fabulist
Whenever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to ensure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
A conservative government is an organized hypocrisy.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Millions of individuals making their own decisions
in the marketplace will always allocate resources
better than any centralized government planning process.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
We’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of government himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
—Eugene McCarthy (1916–2005) American Politician, Senator, Candidate
Government has no other end, but the preservation of property.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it’s good-by to the Bill of Rights.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.
—Jimmy Carter (b.1924) American Head of State, Military Leader
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