Quotes About Government

I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.

All of you, I am sure, have heard many cries about Government interference with business and about "creeping socialism." I should like to remind the gentlemen who make these complaints that if events had been allowed to continue as they were going prior to March 4, 1933, most of them would have no businesses left for the Government or for anyone else to interfere with — and almost surely we would have socialism in this country, real socialism.

On the one hand, the Republicans are telling industrial workers that the high cost of food in the cities is due to this government's farm policy. On the other hand, the Republicans are telling the farmers that the high cost of manufactured goods on the farm is due to this government's labor policy. That's plain hokum. It's an old political trick: "If you can't convince 'em, confuse 'em." But this time it won't work.

The President may have a great many powers given to him by the Constitution and may have certain powers under certain laws which are given to him by the Congress of the United States; but the principal power that the President had is to bring people in and try to persuade them to do what they ought to do without persuasion.

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.

If we don't get gun-control laws in this country, we are full of beans. To have the National Rifle Association rule the United States is pathetic. And I agree with Mayor Michael Bloomberg: It's time to put up or shut up about gun control for both parties.

When a peace agreement is concluded between the Lebanese government and Israel, we would surely disagree with the Lebanese government about that, but we would not make any turmoil out of it.

What is being talked about now is the probability of the Sharon government launching an attack against Lebanon to eliminate the resistance of Hezbollah by using the American war against Iraq. But, of course, in this case, we will certainly fight with all our strength.

In the days following the crash, an axiom as old as the Republic came into play once more. In good times Wall Street wanted Washington to leave it alone. In bad times it wanted Washington to act.

From its founding, America has stood at the nexus of democracy and oligarchy. And as soon as the nation was established, its history of conflating class and race gave an elite the language to take over the government and undermine democracy.

John Edward Acton in 1887. 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Campaigning and governing are not the same at all. It's easy to say what's wrong with government; it's harder to fix it, and progress can be very slow.

I became a Republican because I trust people more than I trust government.

In 1982 President Ronald Reagan called for a war on drugs: by 1990 more men were in federal prisons on drug charges alone than had comprised the entire 1980 federal prison population for all crimes combined.

Just because the power is out doesn't mean we unplug the constitution.

Once the government becomes the supplier of people's needs, there is no limit to the needs that will be claimed as a basic right.

Back then, before it became clear that democracy was best served by a drunken electorate, the bars in New York City were required to close on Election Day.

Our Constitution does not secure the peaceful transition of power, but rather presupposes it.

Anyone who saw Nagasaki would suddenly realize that they'd been kept in the dark by the United States government as to what atomic bombs can do.

Lippmann entendía que la «persuasión» iba a ser una modalidad profesional relevante en los años siguientes, como «un arte sutil y un órgano regular del gobierno popular». Y añadió algo que en general se subestimó: «Ninguno de nosotros alcanza a comprender las consecuencias, pero no es una profecía muy arriesgada decir que saber cómo conseguir la sumisión de la gente guiará todas las premisas políticas».

The state's authority would come from one of three sources: tradition, bureaucracy, or charisma.

Beard concluded that those who supported the Constitution did so because the new government would guarantee their wealth and the payment of debts owed to them, while those opposed wanted to stay with the more impotent and forgiving Articles of Confederation.

Constitutional Law is merely politics made incomprehensible to the common man.

When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place.