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Government Quotes

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Government Quotes

“What's brilliant about the United States system of government is separation of power. Not only the executive, legislative, judicial branches, but also the independence of the military from civilians, an independent media and press, an independent central bank.”

StatesGovernmentUnitedUnited StatesMediaMilitaryIndependentIndependencePressesBrilliantSeparationBranchesExecutivesCiviliansJudicialCentral BanksSeparation Of PowersSystems Of GovernmentJudicial BranchIndependent Media
Author:Feisal Abdul Rauf
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“It should be the aim of grand strategy to discover and pierce the Achilles' heel of the opposing government's power to make war. Strategy, in turn, should seek to penetrate a joint in the harness of the opposing forces. To apply one's strength where the opponent is strong weakens oneself disproportionately to the effect attained. To strike with strong effect, one must strike at weakness.”

ShouldWarGovernmentTurnsStrongForceEffectsMilitaryWeaknessAimStrategyOneselfStrikesOpponentsHeelsJointsPenetrateOpposingPierceHarnessAchillesWar StrategyAchilles Heel
Author:B. H. Liddell Hart
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“The decision to use the atom bomb on Japanese cities, and the consequent buildup of enormous nuclear arsenals, was made by governments, on the basis of political and military perceptions.”

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Book:A Quest for Global Peace: Rotblat and Ikeda on War, Ethics and the Nuclear Threat
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“Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them.”

IfsMeanGovernmentBrainEducationSupportEconomyDemocracyMilitaryGeniusDemocraticProductionsDefenseOur FutureWorthlessGuardianReally MeanMissilesBombersSystems Of GovernmentBrain Power
Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“The word 'security' is a broad, vague generality whose contours should not be invoked to abrogate the fundamental law embodied in the First Amendment. The guarding of military and diplomatic secrets at the expense of informed representative government provides no real security.”

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Author:Hugo Black
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“The economy - once a great scatter of small productive units in autonomous balance, has become dominated by two or three hundred giant corporations, administratively and politically interrelated... The political order, once a decentralized set of several dozen states with a weak spinal cord, has become a centralized executive establishment which has taken up into itself many powers previously scattered... The military order, once a slim establishment in a context of distrust fed by state militia, has become the largest and most expensive feature of government.”

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Author:C. Wright Mills
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“It is only after mature deliberation and thorough preparation that I have decided upon the Program of Revolution and defined the procedure of the revolution in three stages. The first is the period of military government; the second, the period of political tutelage; and the third, the period of constitutional government.”

FirstsGovernmentPoliticalThreeStageMilitaryRevolutionPeriodsProgramDecidedThirdsDefinedPreparationMatureProceduresThoroughDeliberationConstitutional GovernmentTutelage
Author:Sun Yat-sen
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“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 his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.”

ShouldYearsMayCountryUseGovernmentMightAgeAmericaEnjoyInterestingMilitaryPositionArmsCitizensBasesPropertyProtectionPrimariesOfficialsProportionExceptionUniformsAccustomedEmergenciesVery InterestingDefenceMilitiaFree GovernmentFounding Fathers GunShort Notice
Author:George Washington
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“Today the Israeli government continues seizures of Palestinian land for settlements, military incursions into surrounding countries and denial of the right of Palestinians expelled by terror to return. Ariel Sharon, Israel's prime minister, is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office. Israel's own Kahan commission found that Sharon shared responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacres.”

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Author:Ken Livingstone
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“Dear rulers ... I maintain that the civil authorities are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school. ... If the government can compel such citizens as are fit for military service to bear spear and rifle, to mount ramparts, and perform other martial duties in time of war, how much more has it a right to compel the people to send their children to school, because in this case we are warring with the devil, whose object it is secretly to exhaust our cities and principalities of their strong men.”

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Author:Martin Luther
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“Meanwhile, the U.S. debt remains, as it has been since 1790, a war debt; the United States continues to spend more on its military than do all other nations on earth put together, and military expenditures are not only the basis of the government's industrial policy; they also take up such a huge proportion of the budget that by many estimations, were it not for them, the United States would not run a deficit at all.”

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Author:David Graeber
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“Medieval England was a great military power with a sophisticated machinery of government, but her naval administration, at best improvised and for long periods missing altogether, pointed to a grave weakness: the lack of any reliable means of putting a force of warships at the disposal of the crown. Only Richard I and Henry V of all the kings of England can be said to have understood the problem and attempted to remedy it. It is no coincidence that they wer by far the most successful in war.”

MeanLongSaidWarProblemGovernmentForceSuccessfulMilitaryMissingKingsPeriodsUnderstoodWeaknessEnglandGravesAdministrationRemedyCrownsSophisticatedCoincidenceMachineryMedievalNavalMilitary PowerGreat MilitaryHenry VWarships
Author:Nicholas Rodger
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“I hope that the outside world will realise that Hitler's government has no idea of steering towards war, even though this has often been asserted abroad. As Adolf Hitler himself has said, Germany has no need of another war to avenge the loss of her military honour, because she never lost that honour. Germany does not want war of any kind. Germany wants real and abiding peace.”

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Author:Rudolf Hess
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“Beneath a free government there is nothing but the intelligence of the people to keep the people's peace. Order must be preserved, not by a military police or regiments of horse-guards, but by the spontaneous concert of a well-informed population, resolved that the rights which have been rescued from despotism shall not be subverted by anarchy.”

PeopleWellsHas BeensGovernmentOrderRightsMilitaryHorsePolicePopulationConcertsAnarchySpontaneousDespotismFree GovernmentMilitary Police
Book:Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions
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“[On the Internet and activism:] The danger of the Internet is cocooning with the like-minded online - of sending an email or twitter and confusing that with action - while the real corporate and military and government centers of power go right on. In a way, the highest purpose of the Internet is to bring us together for empathy and action. After all, the reflector cells and empathy-producing chemicals in our brains only work when we're physically together with all five senses. You can't raise a baby online.”

WayRealGovernmentActionTogetherPurposeBrainFiveMilitaryDangerBabyInternetHighestEmpathyRaisesActivismSensesCellsCorporateOnlineChemicalsEmailConfusingFive Senses
Author:Gloria Steinem
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“Nations are political and military entities, and so are blocs of nations. But it doesn't necessarily follow from this that they are also the basic, salient entities of economic life or that they are particularly useful for probing the mysteries of economic structure, the reasons for rise and decline of wealth. Indeed, the failure of national governments and blocs of nations to force economic life to do their bidding suggests some sort of essential irrelevance.”

ReasonGovernmentPoliticalForceNationsWealthMysteryEconomicMilitaryEssentialsEconomicsStructureDeclineEntityBiddingIrrelevanceProbing
Book:Cities and the Wealth of Nations
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“The Constitutional Convention debated whether America should even have a standing army. ... They worried that a powerful military could rival civilian government for power in our new country, and of course they worried that having a standing army around would create too much of a temptation to use it.”

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Book:Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power
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“Democracy entails a correlation between the public interest as expressed by a majority of the population and the governmental policies that affect them. The term encompasses various manifestations, including direct, participatory and representative democracy, but Governments must be responsive to people and not to special interests such as the military-industrial complex, financial bankers and transnational corporations. Democracy is inclusive and does not privilege an anthropological aristocracy.”

PeopleDoeGovernmentTermInterestDemocracySpecialMilitaryPolicyDirectMajorityComplexesIncludingFinancialPrivilegePopulationVariousCorporationsManifestationRepresentativesBankersAristocracySpecial InterestsCorrelationPublic InterestMilitary Industrial ComplexTransnational Corporations
Author:Alfred-Maurice de Zayas
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“... war reporting is still essentially the same - someone has to go there and see what is happening. You can't get that information without going to places where people are being shot at, and others are shooting at you. The real difficulty is having enough faith in humanity to believe that enough people, be they government, military or the man on the street, will care when your file reaches the printed page, the website or the TV screen.”

PeopleMenBelieveStillsWarRealEnoughGovernmentCareHumanityStreetsMilitaryInformationHe ManTvsPagesHappeningsShotsDifficultyScreensShootingFilesWebsitePrintedFaith In Humanity
Author:Marie Colvin
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