Quotes About Authority

The federal government is our servant, not our master.

The people cannot delegate to government the power to do anything which would be unlawful for them to do themselves.

A just government maintains a healthy tension between the claims of authority and the claims of liberty.

Governments without separation of powers commit the worst crimes.

The Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.

For government to give, it must first take away.

The early American knew that freedom was nothing more than the absence of external restraint on behavior; the government could not give you freedom, it could only take it away.

No business is above Government; and Government must be empowered to deal adequately with any business that tries to rise above Government.

I believe that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

Better to be uneducated than educated by your government.

Democracy, I do not conceive that ever God did ordain as a fit government either for church or commonwealth. If the people be governors, who shall be governed?

Government seems to operate on the principle that if even one individual is incapable of using his freedom competently, no one can be allowed to be free.

The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning.

Liberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it.

The object and practice of liberty lies in the limitation of government power.

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.

The plague of government is senile delinquency.

Indiscriminate firing by police on people is absolute barbarism. Instead of solving their problems, the government is trying to suppress the people by force.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

The Latin motto over Poindexter's new Pentagon office reads Scientia Est Potentia - "knowledge is power." Exactly: the government's infinite knowledge about you is its power over you.

All government is an ugly necessity.

Separation of church and state was never meant to separate God and government.

I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other, 'tyranny.'.

There can be no such thing as "limited government," because there is no way to control an entity that in principle enjoys a monopoly of power.