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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"Where the law of the majority ceases to be acknowledged, there government ends; the law of the strongest takes its place, and life and property are his who can take them."
"The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it."
"It is a wise rule and should be fundamental in a government disposed to cherish its credit, and at the same time to restrain the use of it within the limits of its faculties, "never to borrow a dollar without laying a tax in the same instant for paying the interest annually, and the principal within a given term; and to consider that tax as pledged to the creditors on the public faith.""
"It was an idea we had when Al was in the Senate - to organize and moderate an annual conference that would look at government policy through the lens of the family to help identify ways that the family can be supported and strengthened."
"If you don't like the idea that most of the money spent on lottery tickets supports government programs, you should know that most of the earnings from mutual funds support investment advisors' and mutual fund managers' retirement."
"Government works best under the glare of public scrutiny. Absent such scrutiny, abuses occur."
"I don't believe an Alliance government should sponsor legislation on abortion or a referendum on abortion."
"The Leader of the Opposition's constitutional obligation - the obligation to Parliament - it's the reason we did the merger! - is to make sure Canadians have an alternative for government."
"First of all, I can't forget my first responsibility - which is to be the Leader of the Opposition and that's to provide an alternative government."
"We should have been there shoulder to shoulder with our allies. Our concern is the instability of our government as an ally. We are playing again with national and global security matters."
"What the government has to do, if it wants to govern for any length of time, is it must appeal primarily to the third parties in the House of Commons to get them to support it."
"If you want to be a government in a minority Parliament, you have to work with other people."
"Government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us."
"The same government that requires a taxpaying citizen to document every statement on his tax return decrees that questioning a welfare applicant demeans and humiliates him."
"For a time, we forgot the American dream isn't one of making government bigger, it's keeping faith with the mighty spirit of free people under God"
"If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn't be here. It'd still be waiting for an environmental impact statement."
"My basic rule is that I want people who don't want a job in government."
"The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom..."
"History shows that when the taxes of a nation approach about 20 percent of the people's income, there begins to be a lack of respect for government.... When it reaches 25 percent, there comes an increase in lawlessness."
"We must support government coercion over enforcing international protocols and speed limits on motorways if we want the global economy not to collapse and millions, billions of people to die."
