People constantly requesting government intervention are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there’s 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 after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours.
—Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British Head of State
For its part, Government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways—to the voices of quiet anguish, to voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart, to the injured voices, and the anxious voices, and the voices that have despaired of being heard.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
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 (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
Only free people can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interest of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means ‘to declare that the government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal’ would bring terrible retribution.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks—no form of government can render us secure. To suppose liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men. So that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions — it only guarantees equality of opportunity.
—Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American Political Writer, Publisher
A compassionate government keeps faith with the trust of the people and cherishes the future of their children
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.
—Cornelius Nepos (c.99–c.24 BCE) Roman Historian
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Every government is a scoundrel
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
The citizen can bring our political and governmental institutions back to life, make them responsive and accountable, and keep them honest. No one else can.
—John W. Gardner (1912–2002) American Activist
There are very few so foolish that they had not rather govern themselves than be governed by others.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
Anything that keeps a politician humble is healthy for democracy
—Irish Blessing
Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.
—William Ewart Gladstone (1809–98) English Liberal Statesman, Prime Minister
A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Democracy is a constant tension between truth and half-truth and, in the arsenal of truth, there is no greater weapon than fact
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
All government is a trust. Every branch of government is a trust, and immemorially acknowledged to be so.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
That we will, at all times hereafter, consider ourselves as a free and independent state, capable of regulating our internal police, in all and every respect whatsoever—and that the people on said Grants have the sole and exclusive and inherent right of ruling and governing themselves in such manner and form as in their own wisdom they shall think proper.
—Unknown
I see,… and with the deepest affliction, the rapid strides with which the federal branch of our government is advancing towards the usurpation of all the rights reserved to the States, and the consolidation in itself of all powers, foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power… It is but too evident that the three ruling branches of the Federal government are in combination to strip their colleagues, the State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselves all functions foreign and domestic
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
We have seen the mere distinction of colour made in the most enlightened period of time, a ground of the most oppressive dominion ever exercised by man over man
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
When any government, or church for that matter, undertakes to say to it’s subjects, this you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the motive.
—Robert A. Heinlein (1907–88) American Science Fiction Writer
The thin and precarious crust of decency is all that separates any civilization, however impressive, from the hell of anarchy or systematic tyranny which lie in wait beneath the surface
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
There are three kinds of despots. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the body. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul. There is the despot who tyrannizes over the soul and body alike. The first is called the Prince. The second is called the Pope. The third is called the People.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer