Government Politics Quotes:

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

- Voltaire

source: "The Age of Louis XIV". Book by Voltaire, 1751.

topic: Inspirational, Political, Cynical, Limited Freedom, Political Activism

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

- Mark Twain

topic: Funny, Life, Sarcastic, Limited Government, Legislative Branch

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

- Winston Churchill

source: Winston S. Churchill (2013). “Churchill By Himself”, p.1079, RosettaBooks

topic: Funny, Trust, Freedom, Limited Freedom, Limiting Freedom

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

- John F. Kennedy

source: Address on first anniversary of Alliance for Progress, 13 Mar. 1962

topic: Inspirational, Peace, Freedom, Social Revolution, American Revolution

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

- Thomas Paine

source: Common Sense (1776)

topic: Motivation, War, 4th Of July, Founding, State Government

That government is best which governs least.

- Henry David Thoreau

topic: Freedom, Government, Historical, Limiting Freedom, Limiting Government

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

- P. J. O'Rourke

topic: Witty, Funny Inspirational, Government, Money In Politics, Limited Freedom

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: 4th Of July, Want, Bread, American Government, Governing

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which 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, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Wise, Wisdom, Men, Felicity, Limiting Government

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

- C. S. Lewis

source: "The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment". "God in the Dock". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1970.

topic: Wisdom, Freedom, Sleep, Busybodies, Moralizing

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

- P. J. O'Rourke

topic: Inspirational, Funny, Money, Power Corruption, Money And Power

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

- James Madison

topic: Adversity, Angel, Men, Presidents Day, Liberty And Justice

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

- C. S. Lewis

topic: Peace, War, Tyrants, Busybodies, Limited Freedom

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Peace, Honesty, War, Limiting Government, Interventionism

In my youth, I traveled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Country, Different, Done, Different Countries, General Welfare

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

- James Madison

topic: Patriotic, Men, Law, Laws And Government, Liberty And Justice

The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.

- Albert Einstein

topic: Country, Government, Law, Marijuana Prohibition, Limiting Freedom

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

- George Washington

topic: Peace, War, Government, Troublesome, Not Voting

Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.

- Abraham Lincoln

topic: Blow, Men, Law, Marijuana Prohibition, Drug Prohibition

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Bread, Mouths, Labor, Inaugural, Inaugural Address

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

- Noah Webster

source: Noah Webster (1787). “An Examination Into the Leading Principles of the Federal Constitution Proposed by the Late Convention Held at Philadelphia: With Answers to the Principal Objections that Have Been Raised Against the System”, p.43

topic: Army, Europe, Law, Handguns, Pretense

It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

- C. S. Lewis

topic: May, Moral, Busybodies, Omnipotent, Robber Baron

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Religious, Believe, Ignorance, Theism, State Government

Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

- C. S. Lewis

topic: Approval, Ends, Torment, Busybodies, Limited Freedom

It will be of little avail to the people, that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man, who knows what the law is to-day, can guess what it will be tomorrow.

- Alexander Hamilton

topic: Men, Law, People, Laws And Government, Liberty And Justice

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

- Louis D. Brandeis

topic: Government, Liberty, Purpose, Justice Truth, Law Courts

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Trust, Kings, Angel, Forms Of Government, Being Trusted

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: War, Patriotic, Government, Resistance To Change, American Revolution

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

- George Washington

topic: Freedom, War, Fire, Economic Freedom, Government And Politics

If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested.

- Tom Wolfe

topic: Conservative, Government Politics

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Mean, Thinking, Way, American Liberty, Revolution Founding Fathers

Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom, and justice, equality of opportunity in industry, in labor unions, schools and colleges, government, politics, and before the law. There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties, or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom.

- A. Philip Randolph

topic: School, Responsibility, Heart, Labor Union, Democracy Freedom

Or they'll talk about fear, which we used to call politics- job politics, social politics, government politics.

- Kurt Vonnegut

topic: Jobs, Fear, Government, Government Politics

Politics isn't only about government. Politics is about the people.

- Young Jeezy

topic: Government, People, Government Politics

I am always suspicious of the formulation that "politics" has prevented a great idea from being enacted by government. Politics IS government, in a democratic society. It's a challenge for school reformers, like reformers in any realm, to build a popular constituency for their work. If the people it's supposed to benefit vote against it, that tells me that the person pushing reform lacks political skill. And political skill is a good thing.

- Nicholas Lemann

topic: School, Government, Skills, Reformers, Government Politics

The more women we elect to public office, the more wholesome the whole process will be, whether it's government, politics, whatever.

- Nancy Pelosi

topic: Government, Office, Process, Government Politics