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Quotes about government

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While the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.
Vladimir Lenin1870–1924The State and Revolution (1917), Ch. 5
- Freedom
The state is an organ of class rule, an organ for the oppression of one class by another; it creates “order,” which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the collision between the classes.
Vladimir Lenin1870–1924The State and Revolution (1917), Ch. 1, Sec. 1; in Essential Works of Lenin (1966)
- Power
In university they don’t tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools.
Doris Lessing1919–2013Martha Quest (1952), Part III, ch. 2
- Education
- Laws
A country is considered the more civilised the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.
Primo Levi1919–1987If This Is a Man (1947)
- Laws
- Power
A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Attributed to Abraham Lincoln. W. T. Roche, address at Washington, Kansas, April 9, 1942: “These words were spoken by Lincoln, then a Congressman, in defense of his condemnation of President Polk for provoking the Mexican War.” Congressional Record
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Definition of Democracy; see Roy P. Basler, ed., The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), p. 532
- Democracy
- Slavery
While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Lincoln’s First Inaugural Address (1861)
- Democracy
Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Fourth of July Address to Congress (1861)
- Liberty
I don’t believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Speech at New Haven, Connecticut (6 March 1860)
- Laws
- Money
We have, as all will agree, a free Government, where every man has a right to be equal with every other man.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865Speech to the 164th Ohio Regiment, Washington, D.C. (18 August 1864)
- Freedom
It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln1809–1865The Gettysburg Address (1863)
- Democracy
- Freedom
In a free society the state does not administer the affairs of men. It administers justice among men who conduct their own affairs.
Walter Lippmann1889–1974The Good Society (1937), Ch. XII: “The Political Principles of Liberalism”, §6, p. 267
- Freedom
- Justice
No democracy has ever long survived the failure of its adherents to be ready to die for it … My own conviction is this, the people must either go on or go under.
David Lloyd George1863–1945Address to a conference of trade union delegates, London (18 January 1918), in The Times (19 January 1918), p. 8
- Democracy
But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.
John Locke1632–1704A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689)
The end of law is not to abolish or restrain, but to preserve and enlarge freedom. For in all the states of created beings, capable of laws, where there is no law there is no freedom.
John Locke1632–1704Second Treatise of Government, Ch. VI, sec. 57
- Freedom
- Laws