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Government Quotes

“..(T)here are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.”

ThinkingMenNeedsBelieveMayTwoReasonHandsGovernmentOpinionDemocracyWiseShareAdviceDeserveOppositesFellowsDemocratDoctrineFallenWickedTrustedIrresponsibleCommonwealthTwo Opposites
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The political system of the United States is essentially extra-European. To stand in firm and cautious independence of all entanglement in the European system has been a cardinal point of their policy under every administration of their government from the peace of 1783 to this day...Every year's experience rivets it more deeply in the principles and opinions of the nation.”

YearsHas BeensStatesGovernmentPoliticalNationsUnitedOpinionPrinciplesUnited StatesPolicyIndependenceJewAdministrationFirmExtrasThis DayCautiousPolitical SystemsCardinalsEntanglement
Book:Writings of John Quincey Adams
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“We are watching industries crumble, Wall Street firms disappear, unemployment spike, and unprecedented government intervention. And our designated opinion leaders want to know: Is Obama up this week? Is he down? And is his leadership style more like Bill Clinton's, or Abraham Lincoln's?”

KnowsWantGovernmentLeaderOpinionWeekStreetsStyleWallIndustryDown AndBillsClintonDisappearFirmUnemploymentInterventionAbrahamUnprecedentedGovernment InterventionLeadership StyleOpinion Leaders
Author:Thomas Frank
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“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion about the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it.”

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Book:Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin
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“In a free society with a government based on reason, it is inevitable that there will be no uniform opinion about important issues. Those accustomed to suppression and control by governmental authority see this as leading only to chaos. But a government of the people requires difference of opinion in order to discover truth and to take advantage of the opportunity that only understanding brings.”

PeopleImportantReasonGovernmentOrderOpportunityUnderstandingDifferencesOpinionIssuesAuthorityAdvantageChaosInevitableUniformsAccustomedFree SocietySuppressionImportant IssuesDifferences Of Opinion
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not - and is not - a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the Constitution is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere with, restrict, and impede government officials in the exercise of political power.”

GovernmentPoliticalLibertyOpinionRightsExerciseConstitutionLibertarianContraryOfficialsGrantsLibertarianismInterfereWirePolitical PowerCitizenryPopular OpinionGovernment OfficialsEntanglementBarbed Wire
Author:Jacob G. Hornberger
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“Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to publick opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem the true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, and the wrong the right.”

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Author:James F. Cooper
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“In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connection to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, "just to keep the people frightened."”

PeopleWayWarGovernmentPartyOpinionHappenedHappeningsConnectionsLondonPropagandaBombsFrightenedRocketsSusceptibleOceania
Book:1984
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“There can be no complete and permanent reform of the civil service until public opinion emancipates congressmen from all control and influence over government patronage. Legislation is required to establish the reform. No proper legislation is to be expected as long as members of Congress are engaged in procuring offices for their constituents.”

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Author:Rutherford B. Hayes
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“Avarice, the spur of industry, is so obstinate a passion, and works its way through so many real dangers and difficulties, that it is not likely to be scared by an imaginary danger, which is so small, that it scarcely admits of calculation. Commerce, therefore, in my opinion, is apt to decay in absolute governments, not because it is there less secure, but because it is less honourable.”

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Author:David Hume
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“The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed.”

IfsShouldGovernmentIndividualBeliefProcessViewsExistenceOpinionDemocracyIdealsDirectIndependentMajorityMake SenseConceptionSpheresSpontaneousMajority Opinion
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“To spread healthy ideas among even the lowest classes of people, to remove men from the influence of prejudice and passion, to make reason the arbiter and supreme guide of public opinion; that is the essential goal of the sciences; that is how science will contribute to the advancement of civilization, and that is what deserves protection of governments who want to insure the stability of their power.”

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Author:Georges Cuvier
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“At bottom, the Court's opinion is thus a rejection of the common sense of the American people, who have recognized a need to prevent corporations from undermining self-government since the founding, and who have fought against the distinctive corrupting potential of corporate electioneering since the days of Theodore Roosevelt. It is a strange time to repudiate that common sense. While American democracy is imperfect, few outside the majority of this court would have thought its flaws included a dearth of corporate money in politics.”

PeopleNeedsSelfGovernmentCommonOpinionDemocracyStrangeMajorityCourtBottomCommon SenseCorporateCorporationsRejectionFlawsImperfectFoundingDistinctiveSelf-governmentUnderminingAmerican DemocracyTheodoreMoney In PoliticsStrange Times
Author:John Paul Stevens
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“The dissemination of the individual's opinions on matters of public interest is for us, in the historic words of the Declaration of Independence, an 'unalienable right' that 'governments are instituted among men to secure.' History shows us that the Founders were not always convinced that unlimited discussion of public issues would be 'for the benefit of all of us' but that they firmly adhered to the proposition that the 'true liberty of the press' permitted 'every man to publish his opinion'.”

MenMatterShowsGovernmentWould BeIndividualInterestLibertyOpinionIssuesBenefitsIndependencePressesConvincedEvery ManSecureDiscussionFreedom Of SpeechFoundersDeclarationUnlimitedPropositionsHistoricPublishDeclaration Of IndependencePublic InterestDissemination
Author:John Marshall Harlan II
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“There is an opinion that parties in free countries are useful checks upon the administration of the government, and serve to keep alive the spirit of liberty. This, within certain limits, is probably true, and, in governments of a monarchical cast, patriotism may look with indulgence, if not with favor, upon the spirit of party. But in those of the popular character, in governments purely elective, it is a spirit not to be encouraged.”

IfsLooksMayCountryCharacterGovernmentSpiritCertainPartyLibertyOpinionAliveLimitsCastsFavorsChecksAdministrationPolitical PartiesIndulgenceBe EncouragedFree CountryFarewell Address
Book:Journal of the convention of the state of Mississippi, and the act calling the same: with the Constitution of the United States, and Washington's Farewell Address
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“The tumults in America I expected would have produced in Europe an unfavorable opinion of our political state. But it has not. On the contrary, the small effect of these tumults seems to have given more confidence in the firmness of our governments. The interposition of the people themselves on the side of government has had a great effect on the opinion here in Europe.”

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Book:Jefferson: Political Writings
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“I am convinced that those societies (such as the Native American peoples) which live without government enjoy in their general mass an infinitely greater degree of happiness than those who live under the European governments. Among the former, public opinion is in the place of law, & restrains morals as powerfully as laws ever did anywhere. Among the latter, under pretence of governing they have divided their nations into two classes, wolves & sheep. I do not exaggerate.”

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Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“Society,--the only field where the sexes have ever met on terms of equality, the arena where character is formed and studied, the cradle and the realm of public opinion, the crucible of ideas, the world's university, at once a school and a theater, the spur and the crown of ambition, the tribunal which unmasks pretension and stamps real merit, the power that gives government leave to be, and outruns the lazy Church in fixing the moral sense of the eye.”

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Book:Speeches, Lectures, and Letters
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