Quotes About Government

87The Confederacy had become virtually a welfare state ahead of its time, and yet again the antithesis of the hands-off government ethic upon which so much of Southern political and social ideology lay based.

The tendency of taxation is to create a class of persons who do not labor, to take from those who do labor the produce of that labor, and to give it to those who do not labor

Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter, they are badly fed and badly clothed.

Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt.

You can tell a lot about a country which refers to the Royal Mint and the National Debt.

The law of nature bids a man not starve in the midst of plenty, and forbids his being punished for taking food wherever he can find it. Your law of nature is sitting at Westminster.

Despite declining catches, New England fishermen continue to receive state and federal tax incentives that encourage them in some cases all but compel them to acquire bigger boats and to harvest the seas more intensively. Today the fishermen of Massachusetts are reduced to fishing the hideous hagfish, for which there is a slight market in the Far East, but even their numbers are now falling.

Second, he is credited with almost single-handedly devising the financial rescue package that saved New York City from bankruptcy in 1975, standing tall against President Gerald Ford and his incendiary refusal to help.

wastepaper basket n. user-friendly, space-effective, flexible deskside sortation unit Government officials in Toronto, Canada, paid $123.80 [Canadian] each for "user friendly, space effective, flexible deskside sortation units," more commonly known as wastepaper baskets.

On his deathbed, Haidar had written to Tipu with advice to his son on the art of good government. He warned him that the Company would attempt to exploit any weakness in the succession: 'The greatest obstacle you have to conquer is the jealousy of the Europeans,' he wrote. 'The English are today all-powerful in India. It is necessary to weaken them by war.

as Edmund Burke famously put it, 'a state in the guise of a merchant'.

Bihar] and of no inconsiderable weight at the Mughal court, it was natural to determine on him as the properest person to settle the affairs of that government. Accordingly, when the new Nawab returned my visit this morning, I recommended him to consult Jagat Seth on all occasions, which he readily assented to.'84

Privilege, that fundamental principle of social and institutional life since time immemorial, had been renounced. With it went the whole structure of provincial, local, and municipal government.

The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.

It is the duty of government to make it difficult for people to do wrong, easy to do right.

Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don't vote.

Moralistic culture views government as a positive force, one that values the individual but functions to the benefit of the general public. Discussion of public issues and voting are not only rights but also opportunities to better the individual and society alike. Furthermore, politicians should not profit from their public service.

The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

Out of the range of practical politics.

Nothing that is morally wrong can be politically right.

I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security.

The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.