Quotations About Government
The teenager seems to have replaced the Communist as the appropriate target for public controversy and foreboding.
Edgar Friedenberg
The Vanishing Adolescent
The Vanishing Adolescent
The plague of government is senile delinquency.
Mignon McLaughlin
The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
Jonathan Swift
The Drapier's Letter
The Drapier's Letter
You know why there are so many whitefish in the Yellowstone River? Because the Fish and Game people have never done anything to help them.
Russell Chatham
Silent Seasons, 1978
Silent Seasons, 1978
A plurality should not be asserted without necessity.
William Of Ockham
Scriptum in Librum Primum Sententiarum, Opera Theologica, I, p. 74. 1320.
Scriptum in Librum Primum Sententiarum, Opera Theologica, I, p. 74. 1320.
A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.
Edmund Burke
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France
The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government.
Henry Ward Beecher
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887
The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.
Lewis Mumford
Philosophers of the Earth: Conversations with Ecologists, 1972
Philosophers of the Earth: Conversations with Ecologists, 1972
When a machine begins to run without human aid, it is time to scrap it - whether it be a factory or a government.
Alexander Chase
Perspectives, 1966
Perspectives, 1966
To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.
Wendell Phillips
Orations, Speeches, Lectures and Letters
Orations, Speeches, Lectures and Letters
It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
Thomas Jefferson
Notes on Virginia
Notes on Virginia
Democracy cannot flourish half rich and half poor, any more than it can flourish half free and half slave.
Felix G. Rohatyn
New York Times, 3 June 1987
New York Times, 3 June 1987
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
George Bernard Shaw
Man and Superman, "Maxims: Education," 1905
Man and Superman, "Maxims: Education," 1905
It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting.
Tom Stoppard
Jumpers
Jumpers
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
Robert M. Hutchins
Great Books, 1954
Great Books, 1954
Frankly, I'd like to see the government get out of war altogether and leave the whole field to private individuals.
Joseph Heller
Catch-22, 1955
Catch-22, 1955
Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this: That you are dreadfully like other people.
James Russell Lowell
"Democracy Address," Birmingham, England, 6 October 1884
"Democracy Address," Birmingham, England, 6 October 1884
So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill theirs.
Elbert Hubbard
The water which supports a boat can also sink it.
Unknown
We have at least 125 communities in Arizona at risk from wildfire, not because of review processes or litigation delays but because of a lack of federal funding on the ground to actually begin the projects.
Janet Napolitano
The current federal regulations limiting junk food is very narrow.
Maureen Knightly