Best government & ifs Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 4

“Education, and the life of the mind generally, is a matter in which individual initiative is the chief thing needed; the function of the state should begin and end with insistence on some kind of education, and, if possible, a kind which promotes mental individualism, not a kind which happens to conform to the prejudices of government officials.”

Source: Pacifism and Revolution, 1916-18

“Since when do we let the government decide what is or isn't good for us? What the hell does Congress know about nutrition, anyway?... If the government can use force whenever something is "in our best interest" then government should force everyone to wake up at 6am every morning for calisthenics in the front yard. Fast food establishments should be torn down and replaced with bars that serve carrot juice and alfalfa sprouts, since - "it's in your best interest." This paternalistic attitude that "the government knows best" and that you are merely a helpless child is insulting and reprehensible.”

“Great part of that order which reigns among mankind is not the effect of government. It has its origin in the principles of society and the natural constitution of man. It existed prior to government, and would exist if the formality of government was abolished. The mutual dependence and reciprocal interest which man has upon man, and all the parts of civilised community upon each other, create that great chain of connection which holds it together.”

Source: The Thomas Paine Collection: Common Sense, Rights of Man, Age of Reason, An Essay on Dream, Biblical Blasphemy, Examination Of The Prophecies

“If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government.”

Ifs Government Political Politics Towns Drinking Connected Chasing

Author:Barry Goldwater

“Most of the software I sell runs on mainframes and supercomputers, and is used by multinational corporations and governments. You may not get to see that, but if I have done it properly, hopefully it will make the events in your life transpire more smoothly.”

Ifs May Done Government Running Used Events Sells Hopefully Corporations Software Rama Multinationals Multinational Corporations Supercomputers Mainframe

Author:Frederick Lenz

“We forget today that Britain still depends for its livelihood and, indeed, its day-to-day survival, on the sea. But the Royal Navy is now pitifully small and has been reduced in size by the current Government, seeking economies to finance its social programmes. Fine while there is no threat to our security. But what use would schools and hospitals be if we could not protect our imports?”

“Government has the responsibility to provide the climate in which Americans, all Americans, have an opportunity for good jobs; and not only for good jobs, but an opportunity if they have the ability and the desire, to be owners and managers, to have a piece of the action, because if they have a piece of the action, then they believe in the system rather than fighting against it.”

Ifs Believe Wisdom Government Action Jobs Desire Fighting Opportunity Politics Ability Responsibility Economy Pieces Climate Managers Liberalism Owners Good Job

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“In a democracy the responsibility for the Government's economic policies, which so affect the economy, normally rests with the elected representative of the people: in our case, with the President and the Congress. If these two follow economic policies inimical to the general welfare, they are accountable to the people for their actions on election day. With Federal Reserve independence, however, a body of men exist who control one of the most powerful levers moving the economy and who are responsible to no one.”

“It's the nature of government, to build enduring institutions, structures that stay long after their purpose is over. If you pay people to help the poor, you have people who won't be paid if there aren't any poor, so they'll be sure to find some.”

People Ifs Long Helping Government Purpose Politics Poor Pay Economy Paid Institutions Structure Endure Liberalism Help The Poor

Author:Jerry Pournelle

“Our Founding Fathers well understood that concentrated power is the enemy of liberty and the rights of man. They knew that the American experiment in individual liberty, free enterprise and republican self-government could succeed only if power were widely distributed. And since in any society social and political power flow from economic power, they saw that wealth and property would have to be widely distributed among the people of the country. The truth of this insight is immediately apparent.”

“The reasoning isn't crazy. It's technically correct. If you're being true to the idea that government must not take positions on religious questions, then the Ninth Circuit opinion is quite persuasive.”

Ifs Ideas Government Religious Opinion Atheism Crazy Position Positive Atheism Being True Reasoning Circuits Persuasive

Author:Jack Balkin

“It is wrong for a secular government to promote prayer. We think the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. What if the president declared a National Day of Cursing God because He failed us on September 11? Americans would say, "You've overstepped your authority." That's how we feel when he promotes prayer.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Government President Prayer Atheism Authority Positive Atheism What If Secular September September 11 Cursing Unconstitutional National Day Of Prayer

Author:Dan Barker

“If I could have my way I would place the Deity on half-pay as the Government of this Country did the subaltern officers.”

Ifs Way Country Government Pay Half Atheism Positive Atheism My Way If I Could Officers Deities

Author:George Holyoake

“Meiklejohn's position is that free speech in a democracy is not an absolute flowing from the boundless source of some presumed 'natural right.' It is a practical necessity of 'self-government by universal suffrage,' for if the citizens are not permitted to argue out the issues of government, how can they be what they must be in a democracy - the rulers as well as the ruled?”

“If the government was as afraid of disturbing the consumer as it is of disturbing business, this would be some democracy.”

Ifs Government Would Be Business Democracy Consumers Disturbing

Author:Kin Hubbard

“His administration apparently means to define itself as a television program instead of a government...I don't know if it can please both its sponsors and its intended audience.”

Ifs Knows Mean Government Audience Television Please Program Administration Sponsors

Author:Lewis H. Lapham

“The absolute bedrock of our independence is having control over our own bodies. You cannot be independent if the government or someone else says whether or not you can use birth control. Unless you're in charge of your body, you're not in charge of anything. I think that's really the bottom line of feminism.”

Ifs Thinking Use Body Government Lines Feminism Birth Absolutes Independent Independence Bottom Your Body Bottom Line Birth Control Bedrock

Author:Erica Jong

“We're definitely in an era where the government wants to keep more secrets and it wants to come after anyone who's exposing those secrets and in many cases exposing government illegality. They're coming after the journalists and they're coming after the whistleblowers. It's not a good sign if the government is expending much energy trying to find out who journalists are talking to.”

Ifs Want Trying Government Energy Secret Talking Cases Eras Journalist Exposing Whistleblowers

Author:Laura Poitras

“If I were afraid of polls, I never would've been elected in two landslide elections, leading a highest percentage in our state's last election for governor. If I were afraid of polls, we wouldn't have privatized our charity hospital system, we wouldn't cut our state budget 26%, wouldn't have cut over 30,000 state government bureaucrats, wouldn't have done statewide school choice. Here's the real record.”

“One of the things I tell my students is that if you want to understand what's been going on and also what needs to be done, you've got to get out of the blame game. Some people on the left want to blame the rich and corporations. Some people on the right want to blame the poor and government. Either of those frames of reference gets you nowhere and they aren't even truthful. You've got to understand the dynamic itself.”

People Ifs Want Needs Done Government Games Left Poor Rich Students Blame Corporations Truthful Frame Of Reference Blame Game

Author:Robert Reich

“Every state and the federal government have laws that protect people from acts of violence, and those laws should be enforced. What I want to see in America is that if you hurt a human being and you bring pain in their life, that's all we need to know. If you did it illegally, you should be prosecuted.”

People Ifs Knows Want Needs Should Humans States Government Pain America Law Hurt Human Beings Violence Protect Federal Government Acts Of Violence

Author:Lindsey Graham

“(Terrorists) are planning to disrupt our democratic process. It's scary I know, but we're not going to let al Qaeda tell us what to do. In fact, our government has decided that if al Qaeda attempts to disrupt our democratic process, we are going to respond by disrupting it first.”

Ifs Knows Firsts Facts Government Process Decided Democratic Scary Terrorist Planning Als Al Qaeda Democratic Process

Author:Jon Stewart

“So, it's pretty crazy. Look, we're bailing out Wall Street, we're bailing out banks, we're bailing out car companies. In fact, did you know there's a special box on your tax form this year you can check if you want a portion of your taxes to actually go to running the government?”

Ifs Knows Want Years Looks Facts Government Running Form Company Crazy Streets Special Car Wall Taxes Boxes Checks Portions Did You Know Bailing Out

Author:Jay Leno

“The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.”

People Ifs Humans Government Courses Given Chance Human Beings Theory Normal Democratic Average Bitter Democratic Government Given A Chance Bitter Experience

Book:Black Folk Then and Now (The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois): An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race

Source: Black Folk Then and Now (The Oxford W.E.B. Du Bois): An Essay in the History and Sociology of the Negro Race

“Is it just or reasonable, that most voices against the main end of government should enslave the less number that would be free? more just it is, doubtless, if it come to force, that a less number compel a greater to retain, which can be no wrong to them, their liberty, than that a greater number, for the pleasure of their baseness, compel a less most injuriously to be their fellow-slaves. They who seek nothing but their own just liberty, have always right to win it and to keep it, whenever they have power, be the voices never so numerous that oppose it.”

Ifs Should Ends Government Would Be Winning Force Voice Pleasure Numbers Liberty Greater Fellows Slave Reasonable Baseness

Author:John Milton

“The ultimate solution is not in the hands of the government. The solution falls on each and every individual, with guidance from family, friends and community. The #1 responsibility for each of us is to change ourselves with hope that others will follow. This is of greater importance than working on changing the government; that is secondary to promoting a virtuous society. If we can achieve this, then the government will change.”

Ifs Hands Government Fall Individual Community Responsibility Greater Achieve Solutions Ultimate Importance Guidance Virtuous Promoting Family Friends

Author:Ron Paul

“If we look around, then, at the crucial problem areas of our society - the areas of crisis and failure - we find in each and every case a “red thread” marking and uniting them all: the thread of government. In every one of these cases, government either has totally run or heavily influenced the activity.”

Ifs Looks Problem Government Running Cases Activity Red Areas Crisis Our Society Crucial Thread Uniting Red Thread

Book:For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

Source: For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto

“Freedom was given to humanity by God. But, governments, if they can help it, never give freedom. They just hand out slavery with slogans.”

Ifs Giving Helping Hands Government Humanity Given Slavery Slogans

Author:Taylor Caldwell

“If we set out with... a scrupulous regard to the Constitution, the government will acquire a spirit and a tone productive of permanent blessings to the community. If on the contrary,... the Constitution is slighted, or explained away, upon every frivolous pretext, the future of government will be feeble, distracted and arbitrary. The rights of the subjects will be the sport of every party vicissitude. There will be no settled rule of conduct, but everything will fluctuate with the alternate prevalency of contending factions.”

“If you look at what is happening in Republican conventions across the country, they are energized. And the message is really the same - that is, big government is a problem, spending is a problem.”

Ifs Looks Country Problem Bigs Government Republican Messages Happenings Spending Conventions Big Government

Author:Pete Sessions

“If there were a people consisting of gods, they would be governed democratically. So perfect a government is not suitable to men.”

People Ifs Men Government Would Be Perfect Democracy Suitable

Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“If it is dangerous to suppose that government is always right, it will sooner or later be awkward for public administration if most people suppose that it is always wrong.”

People Ifs Government Dangerous Administration Awkward Sooner Or Later Always Wrong

Author:John Kenneth Galbraith

“We must settle this question now -- whether in a free government the minority have the right to break it up whenever they choose. If we fail, it will go far to prove the incapability of the people to govern themselves.”

People Ifs Government Break Failing Prove Settling Minorities Free Government Incapability

Book:Lincoln on Democracy

Source: Lincoln on Democracy

“No peace can last, or ought to last, which does not recognize and accept the principle that governments derive all their just powers from the consent of the governed, and that no right anywhere exists to hand peoples from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were property.”

Ifs Doe Hands Government Lasts Accepting Principles Ought Property Consent Sovereignty Consent Of The Governed

Book:Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-president

Source: Woodrow Wilson: Essential Writings and Speeches of the Scholar-president

“One, if one is sensible, blames government, not the servers of government, not those entangled in their governments.”

Ifs Government Blame Sensible Server

Book:Great Lion of God: A Novel About Saint Paul

Source: Great Lion of God: A Novel About Saint Paul

“Under a Labour government, there's virtually nowhere you can put your savings where they would be safe from the state. ... If you put money in a sock they'd probably nationalize socks.”

Ifs States Government Would Be Safe Saving Labour Savings Sock

Author:Margaret Thatcher

“I knew that it is out of the question to have honest, economical government while a few are inordinately rich and the great mass of men are poor. In fact, it is to be doubted if anything really worthwhile can be done until there is a fairer distribution of wealth.”

Ifs Men Done Facts Government Wealth Poor Rich Honest Mass Worthwhile Distribution Doubted Distribution Of Wealth

Author:Clarence Darrow

“In government and out, there are vast realms of the bureaucracy dedicated to seeking more information, in perpetuity if need be, in order to avoid taking action.”

Ifs Needs Government Action Order Information Seeking Realms Dedicated Bureaucracy Taking Action

Author:Meg Greenfield

“If you were starting from scratch to invent an instrument that could impose fiscal discipline, the last one on earth you would come up with is the United States government.”

Ifs States Government Earth Lasts United United States Discipline Economics Instruments Starting Come Up Scratches State Government United States Government

Author:Meg Greenfield

“It is urged that the use of the masculine pronouns he, his, and him in all the constitutions and laws, is proof that only men were meant to be included in their provisions. If you insist on this version of the letter of the law, we shall insist that you be consistent and accept the other horn of the dilemma, which would compel you to exempt women from taxation for the support of the government and from penalties for the violation of laws. There is no she or her or hers in the tax laws, and this is equally true of all the criminal laws.”

“There is no slight danger from general ignorance; and the only choice which Providence has graciously left to a vicious government is either to fall by the people, if they are suffered to become enlightened, or with them, if they are kept enslaved and ignorant.”

People Ifs Government Choices Fall Left Danger Ignorance Ignorant Enlightened Providence Vicious

Book:The Friend: a series of essays ... First American, from the second London edition

Source: The Friend: a series of essays ... First American, from the second London edition

“The question is what will Mitt Romney do as president if his policy is simply to be hands off and let the government be made so small it can be drowned in a bathtub. In the 21st century global economy, no state alone has the ability to compete against China.”

Ifs Made States Hands Government President Ability Economy Century Policy China 21st Century Romney Global Economy Bathtubs

Author:Jennifer Granholm

“If you disagree with your government, that's political. If you disagree with your government that is approaching theocracy, then you're evil.”

Ifs Government Political Evil Disagree Theocracy

Author:Margaret Atwood

“The inside operation of Congress - the deals, the compromises, the selling out, the co-opting, the unprincipled manipulating, the self-serving career-building - is a story of such monumental decadence that I believe if people find out about it they will demand an end to it.”

Source: Bella!: Ms. Abzug Goes to Washington

“There's a consensus out that it's OK to kill when your government decides who to kill. If you kill inside the country you get in trouble. If you kill outside the country, right time, right season, latest enemy, you get a medal.”

Ifs War Country Government Enemy Trouble Seasons Right Time Medal Consensus

Author:Joan Baez

“Our first and most pressing problem is how to do away with warfare as a method of solving conflicts between national groups or between groups within a society who have different views about how the society is to be run. If you look back, you will see that warfare was an invention, just as ways of handling government or taxes are inventions. You will see, too, that once people use an invention they go on using it until they find another which they think is superior.”

People Ifs Thinking Way Firsts Looks Different War Use Problem Government Running Views Groups Goes On Conflict Taxes Method Invention Superiors Warfare Different Views

Book:PEOPLE AND PLACES

Source: PEOPLE AND PLACES

“It's all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersections, no fish and no ducks. OK?”

Ifs Want Wells Body Government Running Three Courses Our Lives Fishes Alternatives Etc Fishing Ducks Regulation License Intersections

Author:Molly Ivins

“I think we foreshorten our own viewpoint if we consider any state of mind, or society, or government as final. Growth and change! We can't get away from them.”

Ifs Thinking Mind States Government Growth Change Finals Get Away State Of Mind Viewpoints Change And Growth

Author:Agnes Sligh Turnbull

“our great common challenge ... is to free people from religion, get it out of our laws, our schools, our health systems, our government and, I would add, also our sporting events. I would really like to see some separation of church and stadium, if we could work on that.”

People Ifs Government School Law Challenges Church Common Events Add Separation Stadiums Sporting Events Health System

Author:Barbara Ehrenreich

“If every nation gets the government it deserves, every generation writes the history which corresponds with its view of the world.”

Ifs World Writing Government Nations Views History Generations Deserve World History

Book:Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening

Source: Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening

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