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Quotes about government

575 quotes from 235 people

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All socialism involves slavery.
Herbert Spencer1820–1903The Man versus the State (1884), “The Coming Slavery”
- Politics
A precedent embalms a principle.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Speech in the House of Commons (22 February 1848)
- Laws
Rewriting unjust laws is a basic human right and fundamental obligation.
Huey P. Newton1942–1989“In Defense of Self-defense” I (June 20, 1967)
- Justice
- Laws
This is how election results are disputed in a banana republic — not our democratic republic.
George W. Bushborn 1946Comments on the storming of US Capitol (2021)
- Democracy
- Voting
It is the fundamental duty of the citizen to resist and to restrain the violence of the state.
Noam Chomskyborn 1928Foreword to John Duffett (ed.), Against the Crime of Silence: Proceedings of the International War Crimes Tribunal (1970), p. xxiv
- Responsibility
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
An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures.
Robert G. Ingersoll1833–1899Some Mistakes of Moses (1879) Section III, “The Politicians”.
Every man has a right to be heard; but no man has the right to strangle democracy with a single set of vocal cords.
Adlai Stevenson II1900–1965Speech in New York City (28 August 1952)
- Debate
- Democracy
Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them like the ark of the covenant, too sacred to be touched.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to H. Tompkinson (AKA Samuel Kercheval) (1816)
- Laws
My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.
Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.
Gerald Ford1913–2006Our Long National Nightmare Is Over (1974)
- America
The framers of our Constitution firmly believed that a republican government could not endure without intelligence and education generally diffused among the people.
Ulysses S. Grant1822–1885Message to the Senate and House of Representatives (1870)
- Education
Not only does the action of Governments not deter men from crimes; on the contrary, it increases crime by always disturbing and lowering the moral standard of society.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910The Meaning of the Russian Revolution (1906), a work about the 1905 Russian Revolution.
- Morality
A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
Henry David Thoreau1817–1862Civil Disobedience (1849)In context
- Democracy
- Wisdom
If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final.
Calvin Coolidge1872–1933Speech on the Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence (1926)
- America
Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.
Dwight D. Eisenhower1890–1969Letter to his brother Edgar Newton Eisenhower (8 November 1954)
- Politics