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Quotes about government

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Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule⁠—and both commonly succeed, and are right.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956)
- Democracy
The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956)
- Voting
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
- Laws
Every government is a scoundrel.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956
The only good bureaucrat is one with a pistol at his head. Put it in his hand and it’s good-bye to the Bill of Rights.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956On Politics: A Carnival of Buncombe (1920-1936), p. 279
Lawyer — One who protects us against robbers by taking away the temptation.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
- Clever Jabs
- Laws
The State is not force alone. It depends upon the credulity of man quite as much as upon his docility. Its aim is not merely to make him obey, but also to make him want to obey.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Minority Report: H.L. Mencken’s Notebooks (1956), p. 217-218
- Power
The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956“Le Contrat Social”, in: Prejudices: Third Series (1922)
- Thinking
In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956“Sham Battle”, Baltimore Evening Sun (26 October 1936); repr. A Carnival of Buncombe (1956), p. 325
- Voting
Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner.
H. L. Mencken1880–1956The American Mercury (May 1930)
- Laws
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Ch. 1: IntroductoryIn context
- Liberty
A bureaucracy always tends to become a pedantocracy.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Representative Government (1861), Ch. VI: Of the Infirmities and Dangers to Which Representative Government Is Liable (p. 234)