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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"The basic policy of the British Government was that since the majority of people in Northern Ireland wished to remain in the United Kingdom, that was that. We asked what would happen if the majority wanted something else, if the majority wanted to see Irish unity."
"The government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion."
"The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power."
"Democracy is an abuse of statistics."
"On the acquisition of Louisiana, in the year 1803, the attention of the government of the United States, was early directed towards exploring and improving the new territory."
"Freedom to speak and write about public questions is as important to the life of our government as is the heart to the human body. In fact, this privilege is the heart of our government. If that heart be weakened, the result is debilitation; if it be stilled, the result is death."
"The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history."
"For years governments have been promising more than they can deliver, and delivering more than they can afford."
"Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25 percent for domestic government agencies - an 84 percent increase when you include the failed stimulus. All of this new government spending was sold as 'investment.'"
"We have devoted ourselves to the government and extension of the Church, and, among other objects, we have conceived it to be our duty to foster especially literature and the fine arts ... next to knowledge and true worship of the Creator, nothing is better or more useful to mankind than such studies."
"Peace on this planet will not be forged by military strength. It will be forged by those who come together despite their government's differences."
"We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither."
"We are more heavily taxed by our idleness, pride and folly than we are taxed by government."
"I am a citizen of a country that has just undergone a thieved election, a country deeply and dangerously divided between rich and poor, but also between rich and middle class. What I believe in and what my government represents are not the same thing."
"We have never yet had a labor Government that knew what taking power really means; they always act like second-class citizens."
"I firmly believe that the army of persons who urge greater and greater centralization of authority and greater and greater dependence upon the Federal Treasury are really more dangerous to our form of government than any external threat that can possibly be arrayed against us."
"I'm learning in my own sort of quiet, out-of-the-spotlight kind of way. I certainly have my general point of view about the government, and the future of our children. I'm certainly learning all the time, I'm happy to be an onlooker for now."
"Bosses are no more inevitable in state and local governments than dictators are in national governments. They will arise and prosper, nevertheless, if true believers of democracy - citizens devoted to the democratic ideals - do not constantly oppose them."
"If we had to kneel in order to live in peace, [ U.S. government] will have to kill us before."
"I don't trust a government I can't shoot back at"
