Quotes About Government

Fiscal conservatism is just an easy way to express something that is a bit more difficult, which is that the size and scope of government, and really the size and scope of politics in our lives, has grown uncomfortable, unwieldy, intrusive and inefficient.

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

The inherent purpose of American government is let people seek their own goals and to encourage them to be responsible on the various adventures they have on their way to those goals, good, bad, and otherwise.

If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.

Feeling good about government is like looking on the bright side of any catastrophe. When you quit looking on the bright side, the catastrophe is still there.

Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government does it to somebody else. This is the idea behind foreign policy.

What would annoy the most people most often? That is the true left-wing test of government intervention.

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.

Government isn't a good way to solve problems ... [G]overnment is concerned mostly with self-perpetuation and is subject to fantastic ideas about its own capabilities. ... [G]overnment is wasteful of the nation's resources, immune to common sense and subject to pressure from every half-organized bouquet of assholes. ... [G]overnment is distrustful of and disrespectful toward average Americans while being easily gulled by Americans with money, influence or fame.

The Soviet constitution guarantees everyone a job. A pretty scary idea, I'd say.

Whatever it is that the government does, sensible Americans would prefer that the government do it to somebody else. This is the idea behind foreign policy.

You know, if government were a product, selling it would be illegal. Government is a health hazard. Governments have killed many more people than cigarettes or unbuckled seat belts ever have.

La soberanía dimana inmediatamente del pueblo, el que sólo quiere depositarla en sus representantes […] que deben ser sujetos sabios y de probidad […]

The Agency's job is keeping secrets. You could ask about the weather, and they would neither confirm or deny that there IS weather.

How could, it was felt, people be so opposed to modernity, and all the many goods it had to offer to people around the world: equality, liberty, prosperity, toleration, pluralism and representative government.

it is disconcerting to learn that while 73 percent of Americans can name the Three Stooges, only 42 percent can name the three branches of government.6

Embedded in the Constitution, says Ellis, is "an ongoing negotiation" in which all resolutions are tentative and no one part of the government holds the power to decide. This "deliberate blurring of sovereignty" is not "a fatal weakness" but "an abiding strength." The genius of the Constitution is that it enshrines "an argumentative process in which no such thing as a last word would ever be uttered."10

The Beltway Right has entered into a civil union with Big Brother.

The War Between the States was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give allegiance.... How long is this endless groveling before every cry of 'racism' going to continue before the whole country collectively throws up?

Rather than spend money for further research and development, the government and the taxpayers (of which Sam was not one) had opted for stiffer penalties for vandals. As if that would put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Assuming either the Left Wing or the Right Wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.

The thought about Republicans is, we're supposed to be Jeffersonian. That government governs the best that governs the least.

We must remain completely loyal to all government representatives to build a truly overseas Belgium in a spirit of perfect loyalty. We have no right, for any motive or in the hope of obtaining some small favours, to detract from the brilliant work of Leopold II, which was a work of resurrection, liberation and emancipation of the native population.

A stupid ruler is much more of a problem than an insane one.