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Government quotes

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“Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” George Orwell, 1984

“Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons, and no government can stand which is not founded upon justice.” Aristotle, Politics

“If you want to govern the people, you must place yourself below them. If you want to lead the people, you must learn how to follow them.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“It is the purpose of government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected, but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, Looking Forward

“It runs as follows: The State is made for man, not man for the State.” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

“He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.” Confucius, Analects

“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is, in reality, instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.” Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America

“Were there a people of gods, their government would be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

“Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“A democracy is more than a form of government; it is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience.” John Dewey, Democracy and Education

“Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.” Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom

“That government is best which governs least” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“Now it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily.” Aristotle, Politics

“there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” Mark Twain, Following the Equator

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.” Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

“It is solely on the basis of this common interest that every society should be governed.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

“If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it; what we have to determine now is whether we are big enough, whether we are men enough, whether we are free enough, to take...” Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom

“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.” Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address

“But we must remember that good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.” Aristotle, Politics

“The character inherent in the American people has done all that has been accomplished; and it would have done somewhat more, if the government had not sometimes got in its way.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.” Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

“For monarchy in every instance is the Popery of government.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“For if liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” Aristotle, Politics

“And as a man, who is attached to a prostitute, is unfitted to choose or judge a wife, so any prepossession in favour of a rotten constitution of government will disable us from discerning a good one.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“The preservation of freedom is the protective reason for limiting and decentralizing governmental power.” Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom

“The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.” Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

“For governing a country well there is nothing better than moderation.” Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Religion, the dominion of the human mind; Property, the dominion of human needs; and Government, the dominion of human conduct, represent the stronghold of man's enslavement and all the horrors it entails.” Emma Goldman, Anarchism and Other Essays

“In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, brain is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition laws. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.” Albert Einstein, The world as I see it

“In a word, it is the best and most natural arrangement that the wisest should govern the many, when it is assured that they will govern for its profit, and not for their own.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

“A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state, especially of the highest of all. The government is everywhere sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government.” Aristotle, Politics

“Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows, that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.” Thomas Paine, Common Sense

“Good government should maintain the balance where every individual may have a place if he will take it, where every individual may find safety if he wishes it, where every individual may attain such power as his ability permits, consistent with...” Franklin D. Roosevelt, Looking Forward

“nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity—and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.” Richard Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?

“The whole difference is that, in the family, the love of the father for his children repays him for the care he takes of them, while, in the State, the pleasure of commanding takes the place of the love which the chief cannot have for the peoples...” Jean-Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract

“The trouble with the theory is that government is not a machine, but a living thing.” Woodrow Wilson, The New Freedom

“Therefore a wise prince ought to adopt such a course that his citizens will always in every sort and kind of circumstance have need of the state and of him, and then he will always find them faithful.” Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“It is preposterous to suppose that the people of one generation can lay down the best and only rules of government for all who are to come after them, and under unforeseen contingencies.” Ulysses S. Grant, Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

“Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories.” Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

“The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of...” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

“No theory of government was ever given a fairer test or a more prolonged experiment in a democratic country than democratic socialism received in Britain. Yet it was a miserable failure in every respect.” Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years

“The only true world solution today is governments guided by true religion—of the spirit.” Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X

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Related topics

democracy freedom people power religion justice state constitution wisdom politics action equality law liberty leadership obedience interest welfare property rule

Related authors

Thomas Paine (7)
Henry David Thoreau (6)
Aristotle (5)
Thomas Jefferson (5)
Milton Friedman (5)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (4)
Ronald Reagan (4)
Lao Tzu (3)
Adam Smith (3)
Woodrow Wilson (3)
Albert Einstein (2)
Theodore Roosevelt (2)
Alexis de Tocqueville (2)
Franklin D. Roosevelt (2)
George W. Bush (2)
George Orwell (1)
Mark Twain (1)
Confucius (1)
Malcolm X (1)
Ambrose Bierce (1)

Related sources

Common Sense (7)
Civil Disobedience (6)
Capitalism and Freedom (5)
Politics (5)
The Social Contract (4)
Inaugural Address (4)
Notes on the State of Virginia (4)
Tao Te Ching (3)
State of the Union Address (3)
The Wealth of Nations (3)
The New Freedom (3)
The world as I see it (2)
Theodore Roosevelt; an Autobiography (2)
Democracy in America (2)
Looking Forward (2)
The Devil's Dictionary (1)
Following the Equator (1)
Analects (1)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1)
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1)