Government Quotes

The people of West Virginia have made it clear that they will no longer tolerate a government that is out of step with the economy of this state.
– Joe Manchin III
The role of the federal government should be neutral toward culture just as it is toward religion.
– Preston Manning
I came out of the government in 1965 right after the inauguration. It was hard getting out of the government at that time, for someone like me, anyway. I got out finally after a lot of diddling and discussion with President Johnson.
– Burke Marshall
With respect to drugs, you know, there are a lot of organizations, including an enormous budget and an army at the federal government level that tries to deal with the drug problem.
– Burke Marshall
We learned in 2003 that the federal government was headed towards researching, funding, developing and testing new nuclear weapons. I am the only member of the Utah delegation to oppose those efforts. The intent is clear - research, develop and test new nuclear weapons and each step along the way moves us toward new nuclear weapons testing.
– Jim Matheson
Every government has as much of a duty to avoid war as a ship's captain has to avoid a shipwreck.
– Guy de Maupassant
There are certain outcomes in terms of the development of our country that are fundamental to the very being of the ANC and therefore our government. I will mention only a few of these, all of which are consistent with the provisions both of the Freedom Charter and the Constitution.
– Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki
Additionally, borrowing a page from U.S. foreign policy, I decided to send a message to a government that was becoming increasingly hostile.
– Timothy McVeigh
Based on observations of the policies of my own government, I viewed this action as an acceptable option.
– Timothy McVeigh
Bombing the Murrah Federal Building was morally and strategically equivalent to the U.S. hitting a government building in Serbia, Iraq, or other nations.
– Timothy McVeigh
I explain this not for publicity, nor seeking to win an argument of right or wrong, I explain so that the record is clear as to my thinking and motivations in bombing a government installation.
– Timothy McVeigh
Our government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example.
– Timothy McVeigh
A Supreme Court decision does not establish a supreme law of the land that is binding on all persons and parts of government, henceforth and forevermore.
– Edwin Meese III
A revolution is not necessarily progressive. It may very well be regressive, in deliberate reaction to progressive movements of the time or to reforms enacted by the government.
– James H. Meisel
The people here in Nicaragua are amazingly friendly, when you figure we're here to overthrow their government.
– Richard Melton
Here's to democracy. May we get the government we deserve.
– Rick Mercer
We demand that the government of Canada force Stockwell Day to change his first name to Doris. Why do this, you may ask? Because it'll be fun.
– Rick Mercer
I read an interview with her a couple of years ago... when she talked about what she wanted to do post-government career. She wanted to be the commissioner of the National Football League.
– Al Michaels
Government must deal with concrete commitment the demands and improve the working conditions of the people of the justice system.
– Alfred Moisiu
The Falkland Islands are once more under the government desired by their inhabitants. God save the Queen.
– John Jeremy Moore
Where you have no religion, you are sure to have no government, for as religion disappears, anarchy takes place and fixes a compleat Hell on earth till religion returns.
– Daniel Morgan
The cause of Peace has had my share of efforts, taking the ultra non-resistance ground - that a Christian cannot consistently uphold, and actively support, a government based on the sword, or whose ultimate resort is to the destroying weapons.
– Lucretia Mott
The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.
– Daniel Patrick Moynihan
No more essential duty of government exists than the protection of the lives of its people. Fail in this, and we fail in everything.
– Francis T. Murphy
Our Government is committed to pursuing policies and programs which facilitate a further lowering of the interest rates in order to fuel investment and growth. We call on the commercial banks to partner with us in this effort.
– Said Musa
You have the God-given right to kick the government around - don't hesitate to do so.
– Edmund S. Muskie
Isn't it about time that the US government stop supporting dictatorships and avaricious oligarchies with our tax monies, munitions and diplomacy?
– Ralph Nader
While I was on the academic sabbatical of 1956-1957, I also entered into marriage. Alicia had graduated as a physics major from M.I.T. where we had met, and she had a job in the New York City area. She had been born in El Salvador but came at an early age to the U.S., and she and her parents had long been U.S. citizens, her father being an M.D. and ultimately employed at a hospital operated by the federal government in Maryland.
– John Nash
In order to restore security for Israeli citizens, every home, mother and child in Israel, and to establish a stable and strong government that will unite the nation...I hereby declare my candidacy for the Likud party leadership and premiership of Israel.
– Benjamin Netanyahu
The 1976 Bicentennial is not going to be invented in Washington, printed in triplicate by the Government Printing Office and mailed to you by the United States Postal Service.
– Richard Milhous Nixon
We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.
– Richard Milhous Nixon
We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility.
– Kwame Nkrumah
So let us be blunt: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberties of the enemies of God.
– Gary North
Your government is no longer mine.
– Scott Nearing
No government is safe unless fortified by goodwill.
– Cornelius Nepos
We want to reduce the size of government in half as a percentage of GNP over the next 25 years. We want to reduce the number of people depending on government so there is more autonomy and more free citizens.
– Grover Norquist
Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.
– P. J. O'Rourke
Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
– P. J. O'Rourke
Social Security is a government program with a constituency made up of the old, the near old and those who hope or fear to grow old. After 215 years of trying, we have finally discovered a special interest that includes 100 percent of the population. Now we can vote ourselves rich.
– P. J. O'Rourke
The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
– P. J. O'Rourke
If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out - either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.
– David M. Ogilvy
Families are the tie that reminds us of yesterday, provide strength and support today, and give us hope for tomorrow. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, or well-managed, can provide what our families provide.
– Bill Owens
Government can't create wealth, but it can create the conditions for private enterprise to flourish.
– Bill Owens
Government frequently has a problem recognizing perception versus reality.
– Bill Owens
I strongly believe that government should avoid micromanaging an ever-changing, ever- evolving industry. Given the speed at which new technologies take root, old-fashioned regulation won't work.
– Bill Owens
People believe. They believe in the desire of state government to help. They believe that the overwhelming majority of state government employees and elected officials are honest. They believe that a troubled time in the history of our state does not necessarily mean the future is forever clouded.
– Bill Owens
The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.
– Thomas Paine
To establish any mode to abolish war, however advantageous it might be to Nations, would be to take from such Government the most lucrative of its branches.
– Thomas Paine
Make the people sovereign and the poor will use the machinery of government to dispossess the rich.
– C. Northcote Parkinson
Keeping a lid on taxes is not just good for the taxpayer. It's a powerful way to force government to be more accountable, set priorities and spend smarter. Let me repeat that: more accountable, set priorities and spend smarter - that's what we need to be about.
– Timothy Pawlenty
Once we roared like lions for liberty; now we bleat like sheep for security! The solution for America's problem is not in terms of big government, but it is in big men over whom nobody stands in control but God.
– Norman Vincent Peale
Having a government that is principle-centered - that means being good stewards.
– Sonny Perdue
In the business world, lower profits reflect less demand for your product. But in government the opposite is true -- demand for our services increases in hard times.
– Sonny Perdue
No, our greatness does not come from our government.
– Sonny Perdue
We don't want a busybody government - a boss - that butts into our lives every chance it gets to tell us how to work, how to play, where to live and on and on.
– Sonny Perdue
We want a state wise in its contemplation - just in its actions - and moderate in the reach of government into our lives.
– Sonny Perdue
You see, I believe most people want just a few basic things from government. They want safe neighborhoods, good schools, good roads and the opportunity for good jobs to support their families. They want a safety net in place for the hard times.Beyond that, they just want government to leave them alone.
– Sonny Perdue
But even a nation of laws must understand the limits of legalism. Between 1861 and 1865, the government of the United States took tens of thousands of American citizens prisoner and detained them for years without letting any one of them see a lawyer.
– Richard Perle
Few governments in the world, for example, praise human rights more ardently than does the government of France, and few have a worse record of supporting tyrants and killers.
– Richard Perle
National sovereignty is an obligation as well as an entitlement. A government that will not perform the role of a government forfeits the rights of a government.
– Richard Perle
I had watched for many years and seen how a few rich families held much of Argentina's wealth and power in their hands. So Peron and the government brought in an eight hour working day , sickness pay and fair wages to give poor workers a fair go .
– Evita Peron
In government, one actress is enough.
– Evita Peron
The nation's government has just handed me the bill that grants us our civil rights. I am receiving it before you, certain that I am accepting this on behalf of all Argentinean women, and I can feel my hands tremble with joy as they grasp the laurel proclaiming victory.
– Evita Peron
I got a letter from the IRS. Apparently I owe them $800. So I sent them a letter back. I said, If you'll remember, I fastened my return with a paper clip, which according to your very own latest government pentagon spending figures will more than make up for the difference.
– Emo Philips
We live under a government of men and morning newspapers.
– Wendell Phillips
Write on my gravestone: Infidel, Traitor., infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.
– Wendell Phillips
We have an extreme rightwing government in this country, although it's called the Labour government.
– John Pilger
Terrorism is in good part an effective government propaganda; it serves to deflect attention from governmental abuse toward a mostly imagined, highly dangerous outside enemy.
– Mark Poster
Unified party control of the organs of government has proved no panacea.
– David E. Price
History proves that all dictatorships, all authoritarian forms of government are transient. Only democratic systems are not transient. Whatever the shortcomings, mankind has not devised anything superior.
– Vladimir Putin
When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.
– George E. Pataki
No law can give power to private persons; every law transfers power from private persons to government.
– Isabel Paterson
The passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the Government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves.
– James Knox Polk
Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our government.
– James Knox Polk
I prefer to supervise the whole operations of Government myself rather than entrust the public business to subord.
– James Knox Polk
The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.
– James Knox Polk
Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.
– Pierre Joseph Proudhon
Corruption is an obstacle to progress and the antithesis of good governance. It is a stain on the integrity of a nation. It diminishes its moral fibre. Corruption hinders investment, slows growth, contributes to unemployment, leads to a reduction in living standards and reduces government revenues.
– Laisenia Quarase
Laissez Faire, laissez passer. Let it be, let it pass. The phrase is not readily translatable. It was widely used by the Physiocrats in urging freedom from government interference and was adopted by Adam Smith.
– Francois Quesnay
I believe however that peace is attainable regardless of the Arabs mentality, society or government.
– Yitzhak Rabin
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.
– Ayn Rand
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.
– Ayn Rand
Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.
– Ronald Reagan
I know I'm not in government anymore. In fact I'm out of work.
– Ronald Reagan
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
– Ronald Reagan
The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination.
– Ronald Reagan
It's time that America's government lived by the same values as America's families. It's time we invested in America's future and made sure our people have the skills to compete and thrive in a 21st century economy. That's what Democrats believe.
– Harry Reid
I have kept a steady focus on restoring public faith in our state government since taking office July 1. Now it is time to make even bigger and bolder gains through legislative action.
– Jodi Rell
Like working families all across the state, we must find a way to make government live within its means.
– Edward G. Rendell
We must never forget that it is the private sector - not government - that is the engine of economic opportunity. Businesses, particularly small businesses, flourish and can provide good jobs when government acts as a productive partner.
– Bill Richardson
Government does not create jobs. It only helps create the conditions that make jobs more or less likely.
– Bob Riley
Nothing is worse, or more of a breach of the social contract between citizen and state, than for government officials, bureaucrats and agencies to waste the money entrusted to them by the people they serve.
– Bob Riley
The fight for reform comes down to a simple goal: giving our citizens the confidence that government serves the people first and the people only.
– Bob Riley
You elected government officials to make decisions and it's about time they started making good ones.
– Bob Riley
Bush is very clever. When the debate should have been about the deterioration of our cities and the lack of action by government, he sent in his idiot to make an outrageous statement about Murphy Brown.
– Tim Robbins
We need to continue our full support of the nascent Iraqi government by helping to rebuild their economic infrastructure and maintain security while training the Iraqi security forces.
– Pat Roberts
We must have a government which is not only a guarantor of public order and safety and which preserves the right of White citizens to keep and to bear arms, which is the ancient hallmark of a truly free people, but we must have government which maintains an eternal vigilance against the enemies, both internal and external, of a White America.
– George Lincoln Rockwell
We must make it an imperative duty of our government to protect the gifts which Nature has bestowed on America and to insure the maintenance of a clean, healthy, wholesome environment for our people.
– George Lincoln Rockwell
If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don't get wet you can keep.
– Will Rogers
I do not know whether it is my lawyer's love of the first amendment, whether it is my ownership of multiple outlets for news broadcasting or whether I just abhor secrecy, but whatever the reason, I support openness of government for that openness is paramount to the success of democracy.
– James E. Rogers