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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"It is imperative to take the initiative, to build firewalls around Alberta, to limit the extent to which an aggressive and hostile federal government can encroach upon legitimate provincial jurisdiction."
"The American people aren't overtaxed. The government in Washington is overfed. The main difference between ourselves and the other side is: we see an America where every day is the Fourth of July. They see an America where every day is April 15."
"This is not to say that the government should confiscate from the "haves" and bestow upon the "have-nots", beyond the requirements of a compassionate welfare program to provide for those who cannot provide for themselves. Far from it. But it is to say that our duty is to foster a strong, vibrant wealth-producing economy which operates in such a way that new additions to wealth accrue to those who presently have little or no ownership stake in their country."
"I think the presidency is an institution over which you have temporary custody."
"Yes, deficits are a problem. I've been saying so for more than a quarter of a century now. But the problem is not the size of the deficit, it's the size of government's claim on our economy."
"I was alarmed at my doctor's report: He said I was sound as a dollar."
"Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work - work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."
"When you start talking about government as 'we' instead of 'they,' you have been in office too long."
"Let me make our goal in this program very clear: jobs, jobs, jobs, and more jobs. Our policy has been and will continue to be: What is good for the American worker is good for America."
"I don't believe in a government that protects us from ourselves."
"No matter how big and powerful government gets, and the many services it provides, it can never take the place of volunteers."
"[Our goal] is to help revive America's traditional values: faith, family, neighborhood, work and freedom. Government has no business enforcing these values but neither must it seek, as it did in the recent past, to suppress or replace them. That only robbed us of our tiller and set us adrift. Helping to restore these values will bring new strength, direction and dignity to our lives and to the life of our nation. It's on these values that we'll best build our future."
"I knew at that young age that going to the Bureau of Indian Affairs was useless, absolutely useless. I grew up having no faith in the bureaucracy of government."
"A constitution should be framed so as not to impede the action of government, nor force the government to its violation."
"Civil disobedience is not only the natural right of a people, especially when they have no effective voice in their own Government, but that it is also a substitute for violence or armed rebellion."
"I do not consider Hitler to be as bad as he is depicted. He is showing an ability which is amazing and he seems to be gaining his victories without much bloodshed."
"The nation's non-co-operation is an invitation to the Government to co-operate with it on its own terms, as is every nation's right and every good government's duty."
"Nonviolent attainment of self-government presupposes a non-violent control over the violent elements in the country."
"A nonviolent system of government is clearly an impossibility so long as the wide gulf between the rich and the hungry millions persists."
"Americans are sick of the idea of the government taking over everything and trying to run it. We don't know how to run a bank, a car company."
