_GoverNment*_

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate? Will Rogers


Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it. Richard Lamm


Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. James Russell Lowell


Democracy is an abuse of statistics. Jorge Luis Borges


Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage. H. L. Mencken


Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be. Sydney J. Harris


Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists. John Kenneth Galbraith


Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us. P. J. O'Rourke


For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. Jonathan Swift


Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. P. J. O'Rourke


Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness. Fred Woodworth


Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. George Washington


Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Thomas Paine


Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. William E. Gladstone


I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. Alexander Woollcott


If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'? Paul Harvey


If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also. Fred Woodworth


If men were angels, no government would be necessary. James Madison


In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? Saint Augustine


It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself. Thomas Jefferson


It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government. John W. Gardner


It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard


Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives. James Madison


Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made. Otto von Bismarck


Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. Benjamin Franklin


Let the people think they govern and they will be governed. William Penn


Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. Larry Flynt


Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest. Denis Diderot


Ninety eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hardworking, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then, we elected them. Lily Tomlin


No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. Abraham Lincoln


Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln. Will Rogers


Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Louis D. Brandeis


Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it. Cullen Hightower


That government is best which governs least. Henry David Thoreau


The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. Winston Churchill



The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away. Ronald Reagan



The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern. Lord Acton


The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary. Wilhelm Reich



The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return. Gore Vidal


The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. Milton Friedman


The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy. Woodrow Wilson


The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security. Thomas Paine


The mistakes made by Congress wouldn't be so bad if the next Congress didn't keep trying to correct them. Cullen Hightower


The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. Karl Marx


The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion. Lewis Mumford


The worst thing in this world, next to anarchy, is government. Henry Ward Beecher



This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. Will Rogers


To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places. Wendell Phillips


To rule is easy, to govern difficult. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down. Robert Orben


We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. Winston Churchill


You don't pay taxes - they take taxes. Chris Rock