Quotes About Government

We shall learn the qualities of governments in the same way as we learn the qualities of individuals, since they are revealed in their deliberate acts of choice; and these are determined by the end that inspires them.

Hence, in a constitutional government the fighting-men have the supreme power, and those who possess arms are the citizens

Human beings are by nature political animals

Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.

The student of politics must study the soul.

Of the above-mentioned forms, the perversions are as follows: of royalty, tyranny; of aristocracy, oligarchy; of constitutional government, democracy. For tyranny is a kind of monarchy which has in view the interest of the monarch only; oligarchy has in view the interest of the wealthy; democracy, of the needy: none of them the common good of all.

exhaust the public revenues by giving pay for the performance of public duties; we must prevents the growth of a pauper

Correct habituation distinguishes a good political system from a bad one.

Aristotle states that only one thing could justify monarchy, and that was if the virtue of the king and his family were greater than the virtue of the rest of the citizens put together. Tactfully

Democracy, he explains, is the government not of the many but of the poor; oligarchy a government not of the few but of the rich.

El cuerpo político sólo debe componerse de ciudadanos armados. En cuanto al censo, no es posible fijar la cantidad de una manera absoluta e invariable; pero debe dársele la base más ancha posible, para que el número de los que tengan parte en el gobierno sobrepuje al de los que queden excluidos de él.

Pero si estos funcionarios son pocos, la institución es oligárquica; y como los comisarios no pueden ser nunca muchos, la institución pertenece esencialmente a la oligarquía.

State comes into being for the sake of living, but it exists for the sake of living well.

Há, enfim, pura oligarquia se o Senado ou alguma outra Assembleia elege seus membros, se o filho sucede ao pai e se esta associação é senhora das leis.

We proceed next to consider in what manner property should be regulated in a state which is formed after the most perfect mode of government, whether it should be common or not;

We ought now to inquire into those events which will arise from these causes in every species of government. Democracies will be most subject to revolutions from the dishonesty of their demagogues; for partly, by informing against men of property, they induce them to join together through self-defence, for a common fear will make the greatest enemies unite; and partly by setting the common people against them: and this is what any one may continually see practised in many states.

Good men were not to be made merely by laws which relied for their sanction on force but only by religion and morality, which appealed to the conscience. Only when the people, he wrote, had emptied them-selves of all the lust of selfish will—and without religion it was impossible they should—could absolute power be safely entrusted to the State.

First rule of government of the people, by the people, for the people: Never tell the people!

the next day the government of South Africa announced that full civil rights would be restored to the white minority.

I agree that was terrible—but what could my government do about it?" "A great deal—if it wished. But that would have offended the people who supplied it with oil—and bought its weapons, like the land mines that killed and maimed civilians by the thousands.

Democracy, frequently defined as "Individual greed, moderated by an efficient but not too zealous government.

Just remember, the mass of the people in China have little or no idea what their leaders are up to, and even less control.

The whole force of the State is at your back if you should need it. I'm afraid that all the queen's horses and all the queen's men cannot avail in this matter.

War is a convenient fix for government problems if it happens somewhere else. To other people.