Quotes about government
575 quotes from 235 people
To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Power: A New Social Analysis (1938), Ch. 18: The Taming of PowerIt seems to me that any law that is not enforced and can’t be enforced weakens all other laws.
Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988Friday (1982), Chapter 23 (p. 241)When laws, customs, or institutions cease to be beneficial to man, they cease to be obligatory.
Henry Ward Beecher1813–1887Life Thoughts (1858), p. 54Knowing that religion does not furnish grosser bigots than law, I expect little from old judges.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Thomas Cooper (1810)H’aint we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain’t that a big enough majority in any town?
It is better to be a total failure in democracy than a martyr or the crème de la crème in tyranny.
Joseph Brodsky1940–1996Nobel Prize Lecture (8 December 1987)But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
John Locke1632–1704A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)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).The most tyrannical dictatorships the world has known have existed under the aegis of parliaments.
Muammar Gaddafi1942–2011The Green Book (1975)In every well-governed state, wealth is a sacred thing; in democracies it is the only sacred thing.
Anatole France1844–1924L’Île des Pingouins [Penguin Island] (1908), Book VI: Les Temps Modernes, Ch. II: Pyrot
Mark Twain1835–1910Mark Twain’s Notebook (1935), p. 379
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 111
Ronald Reagan1911–2004News Conference (12 August 1986)
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)- Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)