Quotes About Government

The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations.

The purpose of government is to enable the people of a nation to live in safety and happiness. Government exists for the interests of the governed, not for the governors.

Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.

The second office of the government is honorable and easy, the first is but a splendid misery.

The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

When the people fear the government there is tyranny, when the government fears the people there is liberty.

Still one thing more, fellow citizens—a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy the first is but a splendid misery.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

But would the honest patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the world's best hope, may by possibility want energy to preserve itself?

History, in general, only informs us of what bad government is.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should to rest on inference.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement.

Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.

Choice by the people themselves is not generally distinguished for its wisdom.

Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than those of any other in the universe. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and natural reason.