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Quotes about government

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Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government.
Daniel Webster1782–1852
There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.
Daniel Webster1782–1852A speech delivered at Niblo’s Saloon, in New York, on the 15 of March, 1837.
The people’s government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.
Daniel Webster1782–1852Second Reply to Hayne (1830)
- Democracy
The real sin of idolatry is always committed on behalf of something similar to the State.
Simone Weil1909–1943Prelude to Politics (1943), p. 199
The Social Contract is nothing more or less than a vast conspiracy of human beings to lie to and humbug themselves and one another for the general good. Lies are the mortar that bind the savage individual man into the social masonry.
H. G. Wells1866–1946Love and Mr Lewisham (1899), Ch. 23
Crime and bad lives are the measure of a State’s failure, all crime in the end is the crime of the community.
H. G. Wells1866–1946A Modern Utopia (1905), Ch. 5, sect. 2
We do not want dictators, we do not want oligarchic parties or class rule, we want a widespread world intelligence conscious of itself.
H. G. Wells1866–1946World Brain (1938), Preface, p. xvi
- Knowledge
Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half the time.
E. B. White1899–1985The New Yorker (3 July 1943); reprinted as “Democracy” in The Wild Flag (1946)
- Democracy
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)
- Democracy
I know not whether Laws be right,
Or whether Laws be wrong;
All that we know who lie in gaol
Is that the wall is strong;
And that each day is like a year,
A year whose days are long.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), Part VIn context
A decrease in the quantity of legislation generally means an increase in the quality of life.
George Willborn 1941Column, December 23, 2007, “The Gift Of Doing Very Little” at washingtonpost.com.
- Laws
Our government should not be run like a business; it should be run like a family. A business might rightfully put its short-term profits first, but a functional family puts the well-being of its children first.
Marianne Williamsonborn 1952Marianne Williamson: If We Want a Prosperous America Tomorrow, Take Care of Our Children Today, Newsweek (23 July 2020)
- Family
The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924Speech at New York Press Club (9 September 1912), in The papers of Woodrow Wilson, 25:124
- Liberty
Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee-rooms is Congress at work.
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924Congressional Government, A Study in American Politics (1885; republished 1981), chapter 2, p. 69 (1981)
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty.
Woodrow Wilson1856–1924Wilson’s War Message to Congress (1917)
- Democracy
- Liberty