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Government Quotes

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Government Quotes

“I saw the government really using the excuse of a weak economy and a financial crisis to create more government and to push onto the American entrepreneurial society more and more restraints and government activity.”

Government Economy Saws Activity Weak Crisis Financial Excuse Restraint Entrepreneurial Financial Crisis

Author:Rob Portman

“England was killed by an idea: the idea that the weak, indolent and profligate must be supported by the strong, industrious, and frugal – to the degree that tax-consumers will have a living standard comparable to that of taxpayers; the idea that government exists for the purpose of plundering those who work to give the product of their labor to those who do not work. The economic and social cannibalism produced by this communist-socialist idea will destroy any society which adopts it and clings to it as a basic principle – ANY society.”

“Neocons do not feel that kind of alarm or anxiety about the growth of the state in the past century, seeing it as natural, indeed inevitable ... People have always preferred strong government to weak government, although they certainly have no liking for anything that smacks of overly intrusive government.”

People Feels Kind States Government Past Strong Growth Natural Seeing Century Anxiety Weak Inevitable Alarms Smack Strong Government Weak Government

Author:Irving Kristol

“If the people are victorious against the government, the nation will be weak; if the government is victorious against the people, the military will have strength. [thus they] will have the means by which they may fight, and thus ascend to supremacy.”

People Ifs May Mean Government Fighting Nations Military Weak Supremacy Having Strength

Author:Shang Yang

“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.”

States Moments Seems Government Given Nations Causes Interest United Opinion Enemy Break United States Society Consequence Direct Weak Defense Insignificant Trifles Weak Points

Author:James F. Cooper

“Instead of a weak and vacillating Government, a single, purposeful, energetic personality is ruling today.”

Government Today Personality Weak Ruling Energetic

Author:Hjalmar Schacht

“Where the Government is weak, military sway prevails.”

Government Politics Power Military Weak

Author:Napoleon Bonaparte

“I see nothing quite conclusive in the art of temporal government, But violence, duplicity and frequent malversation. King rules or barons rule: The strong man strongly and the weak man by caprice. They have but one law, to seize the power and keep it.”

Men Art Government Law Strong Violence Kings Weak Strong Man Caprice Weak Man Duplicity

Author:Samuel Smiles

“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.”

“There is no example on the planet of a successful economy with broadly shared prosperity and a shrinking, weak government.”

Government Economy Successful Example Planets Weak Prosperity Shrinking Weak Government

Author:William J. Clinton

“The Federal Government is rendered weak to do wrong, and powerful to do right: for, as soon as it begins to go wrong, it naturally begins to be divided against itself, and the three great wheels of its machinery exhaust their momentum, or wear each other out, in their friction against each other; while, as soon as it begins to go right, all the parts work harmoniously, and exhaust their full strength on the object of their action.”

Government Action Three Powerful Objects Weak Wheels Divided Federal Government Machinery Momentum Friction

Author:William Batchelder Greene

“What, then, do they want a government for? Not to regulate commerce; not to educate the people; not to teach religion, not to administer charity; not to make roads and railways; but simply to defend the natural rights of man -- to protect person and property -- to prevent the aggressions of the powerful upon the weak -- in a word, to administer justice. This is the natural, the original, office of a government. It was not intended to do less: it ought not to be allowed to do more.”

Source: The Man versus the State: Great Essays

“it is impossible for any mind of common honesty not to be revolted by the contradictions in their principles and practice. They inveigh against the governments of Europe, because, as they say, they favor the powerful and oppress the weak. ... [yet] you will see them with one hand hoisting the cap of liberty, and with the other flogging their slaves. You will see them one hour lecturing their mob on the indefeasible rights of man, and the next driving from their homes the children of the soil, whom they have bound themselves to protect by the most solemn treaties.”

“The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.”

Ifs May Government Enemy History Effects Produce Weak Assuming Appearance Ministers Council Distracted Pursued Roman Empire Correspondence Incapacity Public Enemies

Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition