Government quotes
11.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside government — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"Liberals were intimidated by the Reagan administration and did not want to appear naive by talking about programs that called for government support. I just said, 'The hell with that. I'm out there.'"
"Is this government of Britain's Isle, and this the royalty of Albion's King?"
"Let them obey that knows not how to rule."
"I would with such perfection govern, sir, T'excel the golden age."
"The US government is like an ocean liner, not like a speed boat. It's harder to turn around than people might think."
"Hatred plays the same part in government as acid in chemistry."
"Lots of folks are forced to skimp to support a government that won't."
"Democracy is a very bad form of government ... but all the others are so much worse."
"The Government of India had imprisoned Mr. Gandhi and they had been sitting outside his cell door begging him to help them out of their difficulties."
"When Iraq becomes strong enough in our opinion to stand alone, we shall be in a position to state that our task has been fulfilled, and that Iraq is an independent sovereign state. But this cannot be said while we are forced year after year to spend very large sums of money on helping the Iraqi government to defend itself and maintain order."
"Democracy is the best form of the worst type of government"
"I do not believe there is the slightest chance of war with Japan in our lifetime. The Japanese are our allies.... Japan is at the other end of the world. She cannot menace our vital security in any way.... War with Japan is not a possibility which any reasonable government need take into account."
"Unless some effective supranational government can be set up and brought quickly into action, the prospects of peace and human progress are dark and doubtful."
"Government is not a warfare of interests."
"Freedom exists only where the people take care of the government."
"The trouble with the theory [of limited and divided government] is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. This is where the living and breathing constitution comes from. It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its tasks, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life."
"You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God. Certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race."
"The firm basis of government is justice, not pity."
"Politics is a war of causes; a joust of principles. Government is too serious a matter to admit of meaningless courtesies."
"I do not want to live under a philanthropy. I do not want to be taken care of by the government.... We do not want a benevolent government. We want a free and a just government."
