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Quotes about government

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There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult⁠—to begin a war and to end it.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three, Chapter XXII.
- Democracy
- War & Peace
The genius of democracies is seen not only in the great number of new words introduced but even more in the new ideas they express.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book One, Chapter XVI.
- Democracy
- Ideas
A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XIII.
- Democracy
- Economics
There is hardly a political question in the United States which does not sooner or later turn into a judicial one.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, ed. J. P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence, vol. 1, part 2, chapter 8, p. 270 (1969). Originally published in 1835–1840.
- America
- Laws
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–185912 September 1848, “Discours prononcé à l’assemblée constituante le 12 Septembre 1848 sur la question du droit au travail”, Oeuvres complètes, vol. IX, p. 546
- Democracy
The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859
- Democracy
Laws are always unstable unless they are founded on the manners of a nation; and manners are the only durable and resisting power in a people.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XVI.
- Laws
What chiefly diverts the men of democracies from lofty ambition is not the scantiness of their fortunes, but the vehemence of the exertions they daily make to improve them.
Alexis de Tocqueville1805–1859Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three, Chapter XIX.
- Democracy
- Motivation & Goals
Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910Letter to Dr. Eugen Heinrich Schmitt (October 12, 1896), translated by Nathan Haskell Dole
- Christianity
In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.
Leo Tolstoy1828–1910Christianity and Patriotism (1895), as translated in The Novels and Other Works of Lyof N. Tolstoï, Vol. 20, p. 44
- War & Peace
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
We are at heart so profoundly anarchistic that the only form of state we can imagine living in is Utopian; and so cynical that the only Utopia we can believe in is authoritarian.
Lionel Trilling1905–1975Notebook entry (1948), published in Partisan Review: 50th Anniversary Edition, ed. William Philips (1985)
- Politics
Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other.
Leon Trotsky1879–1940The Revolution Betrayed (1936), p. 41
There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.
Pierre Trudeau1919–2000Remark to reporters outside the House of Commons (21 December 1967)
As against the “invisible hand” of Adam Smith, there has to be a visible hand of politicians whose objective is to have the kind of society that is caring and humane.
Pierre Trudeau1919–2000Memoirs (1993), Part 3, 1974—1979 Victory And Defeat, p. 190
- Economics