Now more than ever before, the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness and corruption
James Garfield
If ever time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possess the highest seats in Government, our country will stand in need of its experienced patriots to prevent its ruin
Samuel Adams
The function of government ought to be: make sure you have good water to drink, somebody picking up the garbage, good roads to drive on, enough electricity to turn your light bulbs and your record player on, and whatever smaller amounts of regulatory assistance is necessary to make this society work
Frank Zappa
Every government is a scoundrel
Henry Mencken
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under
Henry Mencken
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
Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem
Ronald Reagan
The federal government has taken too much tax money from the people, too much authority from the states, and too much liberty with the Constitution
Ronald Reagan
As government expands, liberty contracts
Ronald Reagan
A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth
Ronald Reagan
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size
Ronald Reagan
Are you entitled to the fruits of your labor or does government have some presumptive right to spend and spend and spend?
Ronald Reagan
Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets
Ronald Reagan
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State
Thomas Jefferson
The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers wthout government, I should not hesita
Thomas Jefferson