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Quotes about government

575 quotes from 235 people

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Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.
Cicero107–43 BCDe Legibus (On the Laws) (c. 40s BC), Book III, section 3
- Laws
What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It’s not good at much else.
Tom Clancy1947–2013Kudlow & Cramer interview (2003)
The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity⁠—unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.
Henry Clay1777–1852Speech, Senate (29 January 1850)
- America
- Laws
Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.
Henry Clay1777–1852Speech at the public dinner at Fowler’s Garden, Lexington, Kentucky, May 16, 1829, printed in Niles’ Weekly Register, Vol. 36 (1829), at p. 399
I’m struck by how laughter connects you with people. It’s almost impossible to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of social hierarchy when you’re just howling with laughter. Laughter is a force for democracy.
John Cleeseborn 1939From The Human Face, BBC Television (2001)
- Democracy
- Laughter
Government resting upon the will and universal suffrage of the people has no anchorage except in the people’s intelligence.
Grover Cleveland1837–1908At the celebration of the sesquicentennial of Princeton College (October 22, 1896).
- Democracy
- Intelligence
Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters.
Grover Cleveland1837–1908Message to the heads of departments in the service of the US Government (14 July 1886).
No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute for a family’s care.
Hillary Clintonborn 1947
- Family
There cannot be true democracy unless women’s voices are heard.
Hillary Clintonborn 1947Keynote Address at the Vital Voices Conference in Vienna, Austria (11 July 1997)
- Democracy
- Women
Today we can declare: Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. We, the American people, we are the solution.
Bill Clintonborn 1946Bill Clinton’s Second Inaugural Address (1997)
- America
The new rage is to say that the government is the cause of all our problems, and if only we had no government, we’d have no problems. I can tell you, that contradicts evidence, history, and common sense.
Bill Clintonborn 1946
The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.
Bill Clintonborn 1946Remarks at the Dedication of the Thomas J. Dodd Archives and Research Center in Storrs, Connecticut, October 15, 1995
- Truth & Lies
The modern state appeals to morality, to religion, and to natural law as the ideological foundation of its existence. At the same time it is prepared to infringe any or all of these in the interest of self-preservation.
J. M. Coetzeeborn 1940Diary of a Bad Year (2007), p. 17
Every human institution (justice included) will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way.
Wilkie Collins1824–1889The Moonstone (1868), First Period: The Loss of the Diamond (1848), Chapter XIIn context
- Justice
- Laws
An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.
Confucius551–479 BC