Quotes About Government

A certain degree of power must be granted to public officers, for they would be of no use without it. But the ostensible semblance of authority is by no means indispensable to the conduct of affairs, and it is needlessly offensive to the susceptibility of the public.

The Americans live in a democratic state of society, which has naturally suggested to them certain laws and a certain political character. This

I observed that equality of condition, though it has not there reached the extreme limit which it seems to have attained in the United States, is constantly approaching it; and that the democracy which governs the American communities appears to be rapidly rising into power in Europe.

In the States of New England, from the first, the condition of the poor was provided for;

Os costumes, cuja excelência torna o governo quase inútil e cuja corrupção o torna quase impossível.

He had a strong conviction that no government could be ordained that could resist these internal forces, when, they are directed to its destruction by bad men, or unreasoning mobs, and many then believed, as some yet believe, that our government is unequal to such pressure, when the assault is thoroughly desperate.

The European generally submits to a public officer because he represents a superior force; but to an American he represents a right. In America it may be said that no one renders obedience to man, but to justice and to law.

People think that the destructive theories that nowadays go by the name "socialism" are of recent origin. This is a mistake: these theories were contemporaneous with the first Economists. While they employed the all-powerful government of their dreams as an instrument to change the forms of society, socialists imagined seizing the same power to undermine its base.

No sooner does a government attempt to go beyond its political sphere and to enter upon this new track, than it exercises, even unintentionally, an insupportable tyranny; for a government can only dictate strict rules, the opinions which it favors are rigidly enforced, and it is never easy to discriminate between its advice and its commands.

Democratic nations often hate those in whose hands the central power is vested; but they love that power itself.

Democratic nations often hate those in whose hands the central power is vested; but they always love that power itself.

An individual so different from all the others, so independent, so favored, destroys or weakens the rule of law.

according to the economists, the function of the state was not merely one of ruling the nation, but also that of recasting it in a given mold, of shaping the mentality of the population as a whole in accordance with a predetermined model and instilling the ideas and sentiments they thought desirable into the minds of all.

At each instant citizens fall under the control of the public administration; they are brought insensibly and almost without their knowing it to sacrifice new parts of their individual independence to it every day, and the same men who from time to time overturn a throne and ride roughshod over kings bend more and more without resistance to the slightest will of a clerk.

In the United States the most able men are rarely placed at the head of affairs

In no country in the world does the law hold so absolute a language as in America, and in no country is the right of applying it vested in so many hands.

To meddle in the government of society and to speak about it is the greatest business and, so to speak, the only pleasure that an American knows.

Pour ma part, je ne saurais concevoir qu'une nation puisse vivre ni surtout prospérer sans une forte centralisation gouvernementale. Mais je pense que la centralisation administrative n'est propre qu'à énerver les peuples qui s'y soumettent, parce qu'elle tend sans cesse à diminuer parmi eux l'esprit de cité.

it is certain that democracy annoys one part of the community, and that aristocracy oppresses another part.

Democracy does not confer the most skillful kind of government upon the people, but it produces that which the most skillful governments are frequently unable to awaken, namely, an all-pervading and restless activity, a superabundant force, and an energy which is inseparable from it, and which may, under favorable circumstances, beget the most amazing benefits. These are the true advantages of democracy.

I regard as impious and detestable the maxim that in matters of government the majority of a people has the right to do everything, and nevertheless I place the origin of all powers in the wishes of the majority. Am I in contradiction with myself? There exists a general law which has been made, or at least adopted not only by the majority of this or that people but by the majority of all men. This law is justice. Justice thus forms the limit to the right of each people.

Quand on compare ces vaines apparences de la liberté avec l'impuissance réelle qui y était jointe, on y découvre déjà en petit comment le gouvernement le plus absolu peut se combiner avec quelques-unes des formes de la plus extrême démocraties, de telle sorte qu'à l'oppression vienne encore s'ajouter le ridicule de n'avoir pas l'air de la voir

BirleÅŸik Devletler'de vatandan bahsedildiÄŸini duydum. Halkta gerçek vatanseverlikle kar??laÅŸt?m, halk? yönetenler aras?nda ise bunu çoÄŸu zaman boÅŸuna arad?m.

The great advantage of the Americans is, that they have arrived at a state of democracy without having to endure a democratic revolution; and that they are born equal, instead of becoming so.