Government Quotes

All too often, government's response to social breakdown has been a classic case of 'patching' - a case of handing money out, containing problems and limiting the damage but, in doing so, supporting - even reinforcing - dysfunctional behaviour.

Iain Duncan Smith

Every government must consider the security of the country. That is just part of the responsibilities of any government. But true security can only come out of unity within a country where there are so many ethnic nationalities.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

George Washington

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

Thomas Jefferson

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Alexander Hamilton

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

George Bernard Shaw

It's not the voting that's democracy it's the counting.

Tom Stoppard

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

Benjamin Disraeli

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democrats believe that the federal government is not our enemy, it's our partner.

George McGovern

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

Richard M. Nixon

And I don't think that government has a role in telling people how to live their lives. Maybe a minister does, maybe your belief in God does, maybe there's another set of moral codes, but I don't think government has a role.

Clarence Thomas

I can't really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government.

Jimmy Carter

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

H. L. Mencken

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Edmund Burke

The ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination.

Voltaire

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

John Adams

If you like small government you need to work hard at having a strong national defense that is not so militant. Personal liberty is the purpose of government, to protect liberty - not to run your personal life, not to run the economy, and not to pretend that we can tell the world how they ought to live.

Ron Paul

The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.

Jeremiah Wright

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

Ronald Reagan