“We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.”
Topic
government
940 quotes
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“The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.”
“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.”
“Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.”
“Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.”
“Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.”
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
“When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.”
“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”
“Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.”
“Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.”
“I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.”
“So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.”
“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”
“No government ought to be without censors and where the press is free no one ever will.”
“The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.”
“Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.”
“One way to make sure crime doesn't pay would be to let the government run it.”
“Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out... without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.”
“The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
“Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.”