Government Quotes :: Finest Quotes

In the infancy of societies, the chiefs of the state shape its institutions; later the institutions shape the chiefs of state

Baron de Montesquieu

The People, though we think of a great entity when we use the word, means nothing more than so many millions of individual men

James Bryce

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.

Jonathan Swift

Young lovers and young nations face the same problem: after orgasm, what?

Mignon McLaughlin

Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness

Fred Woodworth

If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock.

Goldberg

To rule is easy, to govern difficult

Johann W. von Goethe

Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear

Alan Coren

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.

Mark Twain

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

I never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden

Richard Rumbold

Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us

P.J. O\'Rourke

The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.

National Review

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage

H.L. Mencken

The advanced societies of the future will not be governed by reason. They will be driven by irrationality, by competing systems of psychopathology.

James Graham Ballard

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people

John F. Kennedy

To put it in a few words, the true malice of man appears only in the state and in the church, as institutions of gathering together, of recapitulation, of totalization

Paul Ricoeur

A recent government publication on the marketing of cabbage contains, according to one report, 26,941 words. It is noteworthy in this regard that the Gettysburg Address contains a mere 279 words while the Lord's Prayer comprises but 67

Norman R. Augustine

Personally, I'm in favor of democracy, which means that the central institutions of society have to be under popular control. Now, under capitalism, we can't have democracy by definition. Capitalism is a system in which the central institutions of society are in principle under autocratic control. Thus, a corporation or an industry is, if we were to think of it in political terms, fascist; that is, it has tight control at the top and strict obedience has to be establishedat every level--there's little bargaining, a little give and take,but the line of authority is perfectly straightforward. Just as I'm opposed to political fascism, I'm opposed to economic fascism. I think that until the major institutions of society are under the popular control of participants and communities, it's pointless to talk about democracy.

Noam Chomsky

You need to know that a member of Congress who refuses to allow the minimum wage to come up for a vote made more money during last year's one-month government shutdown than a minimum wage worker makes in an entire year

William Jefferson Clinton

Congress is functioning the way the Founding Fathers intended-not very well. They understood that if you move too quickly, our democracy will be less responsible to the majority

Barber B. Conable

I worked night and day for twelve years to prevent the war, but I could not. The North was mad and blind, would not let us govern ourselves, and so the war came

Jefferson Davis

How can anyone govern a nation that has 246 different kinds of cheese?

General Charles De Gaulle

Many businessmen fail to understand Python principles--the ultimate absurdity was an offer from America to buy the 'format' of the Python shows, that is, Monty Python without the Pythons--corporate methods do not have the conceptual framework to deal with an anarchist collective, run by intelligent and arrogant comedians who have proved that their method works

Robert Hewison

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex

Dwight Eisenhower

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