Quotes About Governance

He who votes does not have power. He who counts the votes has power.

Power, in a nutshell, is the ability to get things done, and politics is the ability to decide which things need to be done.

Govern wisely, and as little as possible

We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it.

To be frank, politics is about wanting power, getting it, exercising it, and keeping it.

All political institutions are manifestations and materializations of power; they petrify and decay as soon as the living power of the people ceases to uphold them.

He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.

We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power.

And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.

Where there is no common power, there is no law

The tyranny of the many would be when one body takes over the rights of others, and then exercises its power to change the laws in its favor.

Political power does not rest with those who cast votes; political power rests with those who count votes.

One should try to locate power at the extreme of its exercise, where it is always less legal in character.

One of the tremendous evils of the world, is the monstrous accumulation of power in a few hands.

The essence of politics is to direct oneself to the group which wields power

Our program is simple: we wish to govern Italy. They ask us for programs but there are already too many. It is not programs that are wanting for the salvation of Italy but men and will power.

Notwithstanding our boastful assertions to the world, for nearly a century, that our government was based on the consent of the people, it rests upon force, as much as any government that ever existed. - Robert E. Lee

I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.

I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.

I would sooner be governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than by the two thousand members of the faculty of Harvard.

Inspiring scenes of people taking the future of their countries into their own hands will ignite greater demands for good governance and political reform elsewhere in the world, including in Asia and in Africa.

If our free society is to endure, and I know it will, those who govern must recognize that the Framers of the Constitution limited their power in order to preserve human dignity and the air of freedom which is our proudest heritage.

As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it?