Quotes About Government

Eisner, together with the historian Randolph Roth, notes that crime often shoots up in decades in which people question their society and government, including the American Civil War, the 1960s, and post-Soviet Russia.

government is not a divine fiat to reign, a synonym for "society," or an avatar of the national, religious, or racial soul. It is a human invention, tacitly agreed to in a social contract, designed to enhance the welfare of citizens by coordinating their behavior and discouraging selfish acts that may be tempting to every individual but leave everyone worse off.

Locke recognized that people in power would be tempted to "exempt themselves from the obedience to the Laws they make, and suit the Law, both in its making and its execution, to their own private Wish, and thereby come to have a distinct Interest from the rest of the Community, contrary to the end of Society and Government."99

And countries that combine free markets with more taxation, social spending, and regulation than the United States (such as Canada, New Zealand, and Western Europe) turn out to be not grim dystopias but rather pleasant places to live, and they trounce the United States in every measure of human flourishing, including crime, life expectancy, infant mortality, education, and happiness.

When a criminal justice system works properly, it's not because rational actors know that Big Brother is watching them 24/7 and will swoop down and impose a cost that will cancel any ill-gotten gain. No democracy has the resources or the will to turn society into that kind of Skinner box.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

You can't say you love your country and hate your government.

Never ever do business with the government. Be in love with them, never marry them.

Violence begets violence, you know. And you can't kill off all the violent people or all the murderers. We'd have to kill off the government.

All government, all exercise of power, no matter in what form, which is not based in love and directed by knowledge, is a tyranny.

I would love to see a march on Washington that says 'Save our Social Security'

Love of the republic in a democracy, is a love of the democracy; love of the democracy is that of equality. Love of the democracy is likewise that of frugality.

Always love your country - but never trust your government!

I think everything should happen at halfway to dawn. That's when all the heads of government should meet. I think everybody would fall in love.

All who love Liberty are enemies of the state.

No wonder politicians love government schools. Where do you think the dumb masses come from that can be so easily led and manipulated?

I love talking about Kennedy assassination...a great archetypal example of how totalitarian government...sorry, wrong meeting.

I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.

The measure of a man is not how great his faith is, but how great his love is. We must not let government programs disconnect our souls from each other.

The tax collector must love poor people, he's creating so many of them.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

I love the example of Jefferson because he's willing to murder his government and then he becomes a president and then his face is in a mountain. Just because he exercised his power.

There is good government when those who are near are made happy, and when those who are afar are attracted.

I believe that government can, sometimes, be a force for good, as well as the necessary arbiter of a small set of necessary rules. Nonetheless, I do not understand why our society is providing public funding to institutions and educators whose stated, conscious and explicit aim is the demolition of the culture that supports them.