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Quotes about government

575 quotes from 235 people

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The statesman who should attempt to direct people in what manner they ought to employ their capitals, would not only load himself with a most unnecessary attention, but assume an authority which could safely be trusted, not only to no single person, but to no council or senate whatever, and which would nowhere be so dangerous as in the hands of a man who had folly and presumption enough to fancy himself fit to exercise it.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter IIIn context
- Economics
Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.
Adam Smith1723–1790
Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book V, Chapter I, Part II, 775.In context
- Economics
It is the highest impertinence and presumption, therefore, in kings and ministers to pretend to watch over the economy of private people, and to restrain their expense, either by sumptuary laws, or by prohibiting the importation of foreign luxuries.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book II, Chapter IIIIn context
- Money
To found a great empire for the sole purpose of raising up a people of customers, may at first sight, appear a project fit only for a nation of shopkeepers.
Adam Smith1723–1790The Wealth of Nations (1776), Book IV, Chapter VII (4 of 5)In context
- Business
When I hear any man talk of an unalterable law, the only effect it produces upon me is to convince me that he is an unalterable fool.
Sydney Smith1771–1845Peter Plymley’s Letters (1808), Letter IV
- Clever Jabs
- Laws
Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man,
Could’st by a breath annul and override
The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.
They were not born today nor yesterday;
They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by AntigoneIn context
What evils are not wrought by Anarchy!
She ruins States, and overthrows the home,
She dissipates and routs the embattled host;
While discipline preserves the ordered ranks.
Sophocles496–406 BCAntigone (c. 441 BC), spoken by CreonIn context
- Leadership
An open society is always in danger. It must constantly reaffirm its principles in order to survive.
George Sorosborn 1930Speech at the National Press Club (2004)
- Democracy
- Freedom
Egalitarians create the most dangerous inequality of all⁠—inequality of power. Allowing politicians to determine what all other human beings will be allowed to earn is one of the most reckless gambles imaginable. Like the income tax, it may start off being applied only to the rich but it will inevitably reach us all.
Thomas Sowellborn 1930
The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.
ASArt Spander
- Democracy
- Voting
All socialism involves slavery.
Herbert Spencer1820–1903The Man versus the State (1884), “The Coming Slavery”
- Politics
All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.
Baruch Spinoza1632–1677Political Treatise (1677), Ch. 10, Of Aristocracy, Conclusion
- Laws
The people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do.
Joseph Stalin1878–1953
- Voting
However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group’s greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four.
Gloria Steinem1934–2026“If Hitler Were Alive, Whose Side Would He Be On?” in M.S. magazine (October-November 1980)
- Power