Government Quotes :: Finest Quotes

That the principle and construction contended for by sundry of the state legislatures, that the general government is the exclusive judge of the extent of the powers delegated to it, stop nothing short of despotism; since the discretion of those who administer the government, and not the constitution, would be the measure of their powers: That the several states who formed that instrument, being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and that a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under colour of that instrument, is the rightful remedy.

Thomas Jefferson

You have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws; right derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe

John Adams

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that, if it is comfort or money it values more, it will lose that too

William Somerset Maughan

I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground that 'all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.' To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power not longer susceptible of any definition

Thomas Jefferson

A wise and frugal government ... shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government

Thomas Jefferson

It is sufficiently obvious, that persons and property are the two great subjects on which Governments are to act; and that the rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted. These rights cannot be separated

James Madison

When all government, domestic and foreign, in little as in great things, shall be drawn to Washington as the center of all power, it will render powerless the checks provided of one government on another and will become as venal and oppressive as the government from which we separated

Thomas Jefferson

The only greater evil than separation... is living under a government of discretion

Thomas Jefferson

Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force

Thomas Jefferson

The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government

James Madison

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion

Lewis Mumford

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys

P.J. O\'Rourke

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy

Louis Brandeis

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.

Winston Churchill

Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper

Larry Flynt

If you want to understand your government, don't begin by reading the Constitution. It conveys precious little of the flavor of today's statecraft. Instead, read selected portions of the Washington telephone directory containing listings for all the organizations with titles beginning with the word National

George Will

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer

Will Rogers

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it

Alexander Woollcott

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be

Sydney J. Harris

A civil servant is sometimes like a broken cannon - it won't work and you can't fire it.

George S. Patton

People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing.

Walter H. Judd

Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down

Robert Orben

Everybody wants to eat at the government's table, but nobody wants to do the dishes

Werner Finck

Democracy is an abuse of statistics.

Jorge Luis Borges

Our government has become too responsive to trivial or ephemeral concerns, often at the expense of more important concerns or an erosion of our liberty, and it has made policy priorities more dependent on where TV journalists happen to point their cameras.... As a nation we have lost our sense of tragedy, a recognition that bad things happen to good people. A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident, risks an even larger loss of life and liberty.

William A. Niskanen

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