Power Government Quotes:

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

- James Madison

topic: Power, Government, Hands, Despots, Power Corrupts

The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.

- John Adams

topic: Freedom, Writing, Thinking, Speaking And Writing, Civil Liberties

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

- Abraham Lincoln

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Clever, Innovation And Leadership, Too Much Power

The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

- James Madison

topic: Government, Hands, Political, Independent Judiciary, Judiciary

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 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.

- Cory Doctorow

source: Declaration of Independence (1776).

topic: Men, Safety, People, Consent Of The Governed, Inalienable Rights

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Inspirational, Happiness, Peace, Social Democracy, Power Corruption

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

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

topic: People, United States, Definitions, States Rights, Federalism

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Trust, Time, Government, Individual Liberty, Limited Government

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Gun Control, People, Southern, Strong Arms, Pro Gun

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made for a moral and religious people... it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

- John Quincy Adams

topic: Religious, Business, 4th Of July, Moral Virtues, Morality And Religion

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

- Walter E. Williams

topic: Men, Government, Consent, Independence And Freedom, Secession

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.

- James Madison

topic: Government, Federal Government, Constitution, Secession, Too Much Power

With respect to the words "general welfare," I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.

- James Madison

topic: Character, Liberty, Details, Limited Government, States Rights

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.

- John Adams

topic: Religious, Revenge, Ambition, Strong Government, Moral Virtues

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

- James Madison

source: Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1852). “The Federalist, on the New Constitution: Written in 1788”, p.273

topic: Government, People, Liberty, Legitimate Power, Federalist Papers

The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.

- Wendell Phillips

topic: Men, Liberty, Prohibition, Servitude, Power Government

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

No dictator, no invader, can hold an imprisoned population by force of arms forever. There is no greater power in the universe than the need for freedom. Against that power, governments and tyrants and armies cannot stand. The Centauri learned this lesson once. We will teach it to them again. Though it take a thousand years, we will be free.

- J. Michael Straczynski

topic: Learning, Army, Government, Power Government, Invaders

Our minds tell us, and history confirms, that the great threat to freedom is the concentration of power. Government is necessary to preserve our freedom, it is an instrument through which we can exercise our freedom; yet by concentrating power in political hands, it is also a threat to freedom. Even though the men who wield this power initially be of good will and even though they be not corrupted by the power they exercise, the power will both attract and form men of a different stamp.

- Milton Friedman

source: Milton Friedman (2009). “Capitalism and Freedom: Fortieth Anniversary Edition”, p.2, University of Chicago Press

topic: Exercise, Men, Hands, Power Government

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

- Lord Acton

source: Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 April 1887, in Louise Creighton 'Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton' (1904) vol. 1, ch. 13.

topic: Inspirational, Leadership, Work, Power Corruption, Too Much Power

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

- Charles A. Beard

topic: Life, Father, Struggle, Founding, Pro Gun

When all government ...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

topic: Truth, Freedom, Knowledge, Limited Freedom, Limiting Government

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

- Joseph Story

source: Joseph Story (1851). “Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States: With a Preliminary Review of the Constitutional History of the Colonies and States, Before the Adoption of the Constitution”, p.296

topic: Government, People, United States, Secession, States Rights

An elective despotism was not the government we fought for.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: 4th Of July, Government, Despotism, Individual Liberty, Individual Power

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.

- Thomas Paine

topic: Pain, Freedom, Fear, Independence And Freedom, Independence Day Patriotic

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

- John Adams

topic: Inspirational, Freedom, War, Political Power, Endangerment

The error seems not sufficiently eradicated, that the operations of the mind, as well as the acts of the body, are subject to the coercion of the laws. But our rulers can have authority over such natural rights only as we have submitted to them. The rights of conscience we never submitted, we could not submit. We are answerable for them to our God. The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Rights, Government, Law, Theocracy, State Government

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

- Thomas Jefferson

topic: Life, Powerful, Government, Alluring, Power Government

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

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

- Frank Herbert

topic: Wise, Thinking, Government, Despots, Power Government

Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

- Woodrow Wilson

source: "The New Freedom : A Call For the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People" by Woodrow Wilson, (p. 13), 1913.

topic: Fear, Men, Views, Power And Control, State Government

The more power government has to provide things, the more power it has to dictate terms.

- Sheldon Richman

topic: Government, Term, Power Government