Government Quotes

Once . . . long ago, he’d thought of himself as an inventor of government. But the invention had fallen into old patterns. It was like some hideous contrivance with plastic memory. Shape it any way you wanted, but relax for a moment, and it snapped into the ancient forms. Forces at work beyond his reach in human breasts eluded and defied him.

~ Frank Herbert

Tea Party adherents seemed to arrive at their dislike of the federal government via three routes--through their religious faith (the government curtailed the church, they felt), through hatred of taxes (which they saw as too high and too progressive), and through its impact on their loss of honor.

~ Arlie Russell Hochschild

There is a dedication to willful incompetence in many corporate government departments.

~ Steven Magee

And the problems come... one after another... an another... that's what government wants... problems.

~ Deyth Banger

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ... But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security...

~ Thomas Jefferson

When interacting with corporate government agents, always assume that they are corrupt until proven otherwise.

~ Steven Magee

Socialism, or communism as it is sometimes called, is merely a secular religion, where the State becomes a god.

~ Stefan Molyneux

​On top of the government-hierarchy you need an unpolluted group of scientists to give a nation the best direction.

~ Abhijit Naskar

I'm going to draw up a human-rights contract that says everyone on earth must agree we are here as caretakers of the planet, first and foremost.

~ Jenni Fagan

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem. And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they very rarely notice that they’re not. And somewhere in the shadows behind them—who? Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to do it can be allowed to?

~ Douglas Adams

The American government is premised on the theory that if the individual man is to be free, his ideas, his beliefs, his ideology, his philosophy, must be placed beyond the reach of government.

~ William O. Douglas

Among peoples of such mixed natures, such diverse histories and philosophies, and different ways of life, most administrative problems are problems of a choice of whims, of changing and conflicting goals; not how to do what the people want done, but what they want done, and whether their next generation will want it enough to make work on it, now, worthwhile.''They sound insane,' Trobt said. 'Are your administrators supposed to serve the flickering goals of demented minds?''We must weigh values. What is considered good may be a matter of viewpoint, and may change from place to place, from generation to generation. In determining what people feel and what their unvoiced wants are, a talent of strategy, and an impatience with the illogic of others, are not qualifications.

~ Charles V. De Vet

My father once told me that American democracy is a people’s democracy at heart, and that it therefore can be as great as the American people, or as fallible. It depends on all of us. But our system is more fragile than we know. To sustain it, we must always cherish the ideals on which it was founded, remain vigilant against the dark forces that threaten it, and actively engage in the process of making it work.

~ George Takei

Any regime or any government which motivates its own people to be different than one another is a good regime, is a good government! Encourage people to think differently, to act differently, and to believe in different things, otherwise you create just a herd of animals!

~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

Happy am I, for every time I meditate on governments, I always find new reasons in my inquiries for loving my own country.

~ Jean-Jacques Rousseau

That is the one thing that makes me a Democrat, I suppose - this idea that our communal values, our sense of mutual responsibility and social solidarity, should express themselves not just in the church or the mosque or the synagogue; not just on the blocks where we live, in the places where we work, or within our own families; but also through our government.

~ Barack Obama

Ours was the first nation to be founded on the idea that all are created equal and all deserve equal treatment under the law. Despite our missteps and shortcomings, these ideals still inspire hope among the oppressed and give us pride in being Americans.

~ Jimmy Carter

Whether voting Republican or Democrat, the result is the same: A corrupt corporate government.

~ Steven Magee

Ideas are very important for the shaping of society. In fact, they are far more powerful than bombs or armies or guns. And this is because ideas are capable of spreading without limit. They are behind all the choices we make. They can transform the world in a way that governments and armies cannot. Fighting for liberty with ideas makes much more sense to me than fighting with guns or politics or political power. With ideas, we ca make real change that lasts.

~ Ron Paul

Thou wouldst make a good monarch of a desert

~ Sophocles

Ideas are very important for the shaping of society. In fact, they are far more powerful than bombs or armies or guns. And this is because ideas are capable of spreading without limit. They are behind all the choices we make. They can transform the world in a way that governments and armies cannot. Fighting for liberty with ideas makes much more sense to me than fighting with guns or politics or political power. With ideas, we can make real change that lasts.

~ Ron Paul

Ideas are very important for the shaping of society. In fact, they are far more powerful than bombs or armies or guns. And this is because ideas are capable of spreading without limit. They are behind all the choices we make. They can transform the world in a way that governments and armies cannot. Fighting for liberty with ideas makes much more sense to me than fighting with guns or politics or political power. With ideas, we can make real change that lasts

~ Ron Paul

If we believe that murder is wrong and not admissible in our society, then it has to be wrong for everyone, not just individuals but governments as well.

~ Helen Prejean

The police are often as corrupt as the corporate government that employs them.

~ Steven Magee

I remember that there was a time when I believed that a government and its departments were there to meet the needs, to understand the needs, and to act on the needs of the people for whom they have taken responsibility. It took me some time to question why it was in relation to [Aboriginal] people that they did not meet the needs, or take the steps, that responsible government demands. Why do they not provide the simple basics in the ways that work for us? Why not? There has never been an honest answer to this.

~ Rom Watangu

Really, what is the law when it stands in the way of what the government wants to do?

~ Juliana Barbassa

Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.

~ James Madison

Most fundamentally, the U.S. military is—and will continue to be—a product of our culture and our collective decisions. Whatever it is, it's what we have made it.

~ Rosa Brooks

Government isn't about religion or signs or symbols… It's about power and control.

~ Robert Ferrigno

I realized that the legal system was corrupt when I went to court and the judge imposed a very short time limit on my evidence submission before removing my legal rights to free speech.

~ Steven Magee

If your government keep making big mistakes and in return you keep supporting your government, then you are the biggest mistake for your country!

~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

The biggest mistake that you will make in life is believing that governments act in the public interest.

~ Steven Magee

When the government and electrical utility company jointly harass an electrical fraud researcher, it confirms that the research is progressing in the right direction!

~ Steven Magee

Reigning doctrines are often called a double standard.The term is misleading.It is more accurate to describe them as a single standard,clear and unmistakable,the standard that Adam Smith called the vile maxim of the masters of mankind: ...All for ourselves,and nothing for other people. Much has changed since his day,but the vile maxim flourishes.

~ Noam Chomsky

It is easy for those who conflate religion with government to interpret any criticism of government or policy as an 'attack' on their 'faith'.

~ Christina Engela

If a man exists who is immune to force, even if he's the most blameless anchorite living on top of a column in the middle of the desert, he is beyond government, beyond authority, and cannot be controlled; and that would be intolerable.

~ K.j. Parker

It is clear that the protective functions of workplace health and safety have transferred to the workers through the process of corporate government deregulation and reduced funding of relevant government departments.

~ Steven Magee

Democracy is government by the people, for the people. Without the responsibility of the people, and without the involvement of the people - all you have left is GOVERNMENT.

~ Christina Engela

It's not in the interests of the self-serving government to educate the masses to the point where they are smart enough to see through the bullshit - because then people will be too smart to vote for them again.

~ Christina Engela

I note the lengths to which Christianist groups are prepared to go to, to influence government and to network hate-churches in order to get their way and to rob people of their human rights, and it gives me cold chills.

~ Christina Engela