Quotes About Rulers

The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.

When they are preparing for war, those who rule by force speak most copiously about peace until they have completed the mobilization process.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of common man.

If the Islamic world is so suffused with rage and hatred of us - for our wars, occupations, drone attacks, support of Israel, decadent culture, and tolerance of insults to Islam and the Prophet - why should we call for free elections, when the people will use those elections to vote into power rulers hostile to the United States?

He determines the course of world events; he removes kings and sets others on the throne.

I desire a society which selects its rulers from the best elements of every class and denies the right of any class or corporation to usurp the government itself--whether it be the nobles, the clergy, the bourgeoisie, or the proletariat. For government by any class is fatal to the welfare of the whole

Democracy is a bundle of rights and freedoms wrestled from the powerful. Our rulers only surrender their power when compelled to - when the cost of resisting pressure from below becomes greater than the cost of giving ground to it.

the forces of rulers and ritual slowly, slowly will kill our freedom to live as we choose.

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

He may have agreed with Napoleon, who said, 'Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet,' and with Seneca the Younger: 'Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men.

Men had better be without education than be educated by their rulers.

Governments must conform to the nature of the men governed.

Who can declare that money is not a power which rulers of the world cannot withstand?

Stupidity can win for a moment, but it can never really succeed because the nature of humans is to seek freedom. Rulers can delay that freedom, but they cannot stop it.

Men at a distance, who have admired our systems of government unfounded in nature, are apt to accuse the rulers, and say that taxes have been assessed too high and collected too rigidly.

All civil rulers, as such, are the ordinance and ministers of God; and they are all, by the nature of their office, and in their respective spheres and stations, bound to consult the public welfare

Following rulers instead of prophets, the wicked can rule you, but the knowledge can stop it.

They that possess the prince possess the laws.

...is the spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? ...the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless.

The purpose of criminal law is to punish the enemies of those in power.

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.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of common man.