Government quotes
11.3K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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"In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, "just to keep the people frightened.""
"Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination. On the contrary, laws, under no form of government, are better supported, liberty and property better secured, or happiness more effectually dispensed to mankind."
"Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last."
"`Tis substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to every species of free Government."
"The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world."
"[V]irtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government."
"The United States enjoy a scene of prosperity and tranquility under the new government that could hardly have been hoped for."
"It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it."
"Americans complain a lot about the government and they voice a generalized suspicion of the government, but they constantly clammer for more of it."
"What the federal government does basically is borrow money from people and mail it to people."
"Actually, there is only one first question of government, and it is How should we live? or What kind of people do we want our citizens to be?"
"Capital punishment, like the rest of the criminal justice system, is a government program, so skepticism is in order."
"I think there is a huge responsibility upon governments to understand the consequence of their decisions."
"It is vain to expect a well-balanced government without a well-balanced society."
"Rome was great in arms, in government, in law."
"If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient.""
"The purpose of the right to bear arms is twofold; to allow individuals to protect themselves and their families, and to ensure a body of armed citizenry from which a militia could be drawn, whether that militia's role was to protect the nation, or to protect the people from a tyrannical government."
"Bradley Manning should be regarded as a hero. He is doing what an honest, decent citizen should be doing: letting your population know what the government, the people who rule you are doing. They want to keep it secret of course."
"Governments are not representative."
"We have a record for Nawaz Sharif but not the others. And judging by the record, it's pretty hard to be optimistic. His [Sharif's] previous governments were very corrupt and regressive in the policies pursued."
