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Quotes about government

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I didn’t come to Washington to be loved and I haven’t been disappointed.
PGPhilip L. Gramm
Treat the negro as a citizen and a voter, as he is and must remain, and soon parties will be divided, not on the color line, but on principle.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Sixth State of the Union Address (1874)
- Race
- Voting
Keep the church and the state forever separate.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Speech to the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Des Moines, Iowa (1875)
- Religion
The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Message to the Senate and House of Representatives (1870)
- Education
Suffrage once given can never be taken away, and all that remains for us now is to make good that gift by protecting those who have received it.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Conversation reported in John Russell Young, Around the World with General Grant (1879), p. 362
- Voting
If a law commands me to sin I will break it; if it calls me to suffer, I will let it take its course unresistingly.
Angelina Grimké1805–1879“Appeal to the Christian Women of the South” (1836)
- Laws
- Morality
Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804The Federalist Papers (1787–1788), No. 15
Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Remarks at the New York ratifying convention (1788), in Elliot’s Debates, vol. 2, p. 348
- Democracy
Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Elliot’s Debates, volume 2, p. 364. (28 July 1788)
- Laws
Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804The Federalist Papers (1787–1788), No. 15
- Laws
It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Speech in New York, urging ratification of the U.S. Constitution (21 June 1788)
- Democracy
No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Federalist No. 78 (May 28, 1788)In context
- Laws
The interpretation of the laws is the proper and peculiar province of the courts. A constitution is, in fact, and must be regarded by the judges, as a fundamental law. It therefore belongs to them to ascertain its meaning, as well as the meaning of any particular act proceeding from the legislative body.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Federalist No. 78 (May 28, 1788)In context
- Justice
- Laws
Whoever attentively considers the different departments of power must perceive, that, in a government in which they are separated from each other, the judiciary, from the nature of its functions, will always be the least dangerous to the political rights of the Constitution; because it will be least in a capacity to annoy or injure them.
Alexander Hamilton1757–1804Federalist No. 78 (May 28, 1788)In context
- Justice
How do you cause people to believe in an imagined order such as Christianity, democracy or capitalism? First, you never admit that the order is imagined.
Yuval Noah Harariborn 1976Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2011), Chapter 6: “Building Pyramids”
- Democracy
- Religion