Quotes About Government

In the 1970s, 3 percent of retiring members became lobbyists. Thirty years later, that number has increased by an order of magnitude. Between 1998 and 2004, more than 50 percent of senators and 42 percent of House members made that career transition.

Overregulation corrupts citizens and weakens the rule of law.

So, ignorant we are. But we're not stupid. Indeed...remaining ignorant about politics and our government is a perfectly rational response to the government we have. The question isn't what we know. The question is what we're capable of knowing, and doing, if we have the right incentives, and the right opportunity.

The struggle in that world will not be government's. It will be to assure that essential liberties are preserved in this environment of perfect control. As Siva Vaidhyanathan puts it

In the run-up to the election, Stephen Harper had rolled out the rhetoric on the need for clean and transparent government, expressing frustration with Paul Martin's Liberals over their alleged secrecy and obstructionism. "When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent," Harper declared in a statement to be later viewed as notable for ironic content, "Is frankly when it is rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.

Stephen] Harper had said he would use all legal means, and what [John] Baird suggested was an option the prome minister was considering. If the governor general had refused his request, he could have replaced her with a more compliant one, making the case to the Queen that the people of Canada were opposed in great numbers to a coalition replacing his government.

You can't have a situation in which companies proceed on a permanent basis relying only on cash from the government.

After the war Cairo became a sanctuary for Nazis, who advised the military and the government. The rise of the Islamist movement coincided with the decline of fascism, but they overlapped in Egypt, and the germ passed into a new carrier.

Christianity would be powerless to block this trend because it exists only in the realm of the spirit—"like a vision in a pure ideal world." Islam, on the other hand, is "a complete system" with laws, social codes, economic rules, and its own method of government. Only Islam offered a formula for creating a just and godly society. Thus

Hubbard mentions an organization he calls SMERSH, a name taken from James Bond novels. Hubbard describes it as a "hidden government …that aspired to world domination!" Psychiatry is the dominating force behind this sinister institution.

As our Governments spin, lie and lose their credibility, the electorate simply shrugs and looks the other way.

I mean, you can't be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government's policy is benevolent, can you now?

The individual cannot bargain with the State. The State recognizes no coinage but power: and it issues the coin itself.

The historic function of a Senator from Oregon is to drive all the other Senators mad.

1. The hand that rules the press, the radio, the screen and the far-spread magazine, rules the country. 2. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right.

Ronnie had retired from acting to live off the grid in an underground bunker in the Nevada desert to escape the government, which he fervently believed was listening to his thoughts and planning a global pandemic to usher in a new world order.

sweeping relaxation of civil liberties

One of the things the government can't do is run anything. The only things our government runs are the post office and the railroads, and both of them are bankrupt.

To straddle the middle ground and win elections, we have to be in charge of the political agenda. This can only be done by not being beaten in the argument with our critics. They complain that I come down too hard on their arguments. But wrong ideas have to be challenged before they influence public opinion and make for problems. Those who try to be clever at the expense of the government should not complain if my replies are as sharp as their criticisms.

I was also troubled by the apparent over-confidence of a generation that has only known stability, growth and prosperity. I thought our people should understand how vulnerable Singapore was and is, the dangers that beset us, and how we nearly did not make it. Most of all, I hope that they will know that honest and effective government, public order and personal security, economic and social progress did not come about as the natural course of events.

You can bargain for better wages, you can bargain for higher productivity bonuses. But once the bargain has been struck, then you must enter into the spirit of the agreement, and put in an honest day's work for an honest day's wage. There must be no fooling around, work means discipline. Singapore's success depends on the spirit in which workers, management and government, all three, enter into the spirit of cooperation, necessary for prosperity.

The art of government is the art of building up team spirit.

Human beings are created unequal, and no amount of social engineering or government intervention can significantly alter one's lot in life. At most, government policies can help equalise opportunity at the starting point, but they cannot ensure equal outcomes. Society is bound to end up with unequal outcomes

It was a Midwesternized version of anarchy. Tear down the walls, get the government out of our lives, smoke lots of dope, have lots of sex, and make lots of noise.