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Quotes about government

575 quotes from 235 people

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In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Kentucky Resolutions (1798), Resolution 9
- Power
When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826The Declaration of Independence (1776)In context
- America
- Freedom
In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826The Declaration of Independence (1776)In context
- Justice
In any case Pakistan is not going to be a theocratic State to be ruled by priests with a divine mission.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah1876–1948Broadcast to the people of the United States of America on Pakistan (February 1948)
- Religion
Islam and its idealism have taught us democracy. It has taught equality of man, justice and fairplay to everybody.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah1876–1948Broadcast to the people of the United States of America on Pakistan (February 1948)
- Democracy
- Religion
We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of one State.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah1876–1948Address to the Constituent Assembly (1947)
This right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973Voting Rights Act signing speech (1965)
- Voting
Presidents and Congresses, laws and lawsuits can open the doors to the polling places and open the doors to the wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot. But only the individual Negro, and all others who have been denied the right to vote, can really walk through those doors, and can use that right, and can transform the vote into an instrument of justice and fulfillment.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973Remarks on signing the Voting Rights Act (6 August 1965)
- Race
- Voting
Every American citizen must have an equal right to vote. There is no reason which can excuse the denial of that right. There is no duty which weighs more heavily on us than the duty we have to ensure that right.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973We Shall Overcome (1965)
- America
- Voting
A people divided over the right to vote can never build a Nation united.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)
- America
- Voting
We cannot have government for all the people until we first make certain it is government of and by all the people.
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973Special message to Congress on the right to vote (1965)
- Democracy
The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson (1786), p. 111
- Laws
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 148 (17 August 1751)
- Laws
- Power
There’s reason good, that you good laws should make:
Men’s manners ne’er were viler, for your sake.
Ben Jonson1572–1637Epigrams (1616), XXIV: To the Parliament
- Clever Jabs
- Laws
My faith in the Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.
Barbara Jordan1936–1996Statement to the House Judiciary Committee on the impeachment of Richard Nixon (25 July 1974)
- Laws