Quotes about government
575 quotes from 235 people
The power to tax is not the power to destroy while this Court sits.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Panhandle Oil Co. v. Mississippi ex rel. Knox, 277 U.S. 233 (1928).The aim of the law is not to punish sins, but is to prevent certain external results.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Commonwealth v. Kennedy, 170 Mass. 18, 20 (1897) (opinion of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts).Constitutions are intended to preserve practical and substantial rights, not to maintain theories.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Davis v. Mills, 194 U.S. 451, 457 (1904).- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935Writing for the Court, Bain Peanut Co. v. Pinson, 282 U.S. 499, 501 (1931).
State interference is an evil, where it cannot be shown to be a good.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.1841–1935The Common Law (1881), pp. 88-96The freeman casting with unpurchased hand
The vote that shakes the turrets of the land.
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.1809–1894“Poetry, a Metrical Essay”, Poems (1836)Where there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.
Elbert Hubbard1856–1915The Better Part (1901)We’d all like t’vote fer th’best man, but he’s never a candidate.
Kin Hubbard1868–1930The Best of Kin Hubbard (1984)
Hubert Humphrey1911–1978Remarks at the dedication of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, November 1, 1977, Congressional Record, November 4, 1977, vol 123, p. 37287.The State has its root in time, and will ripe and rot in time.
Henrik Ibsen1828–1906Letter to Georg Brandes (17 February 1871), as translated in Henrik Ibsen: Björnstjerne Björnson. Critical Studies (1899) by Georg Morris Cohen BrandesThe most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom amongst us is the compact majority
Robert G. Ingersoll1833–1899Some Mistakes of Moses (1879) Section III, “The Politicians”.
