An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON GOVERNMENT 2
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
Thomas Paine (1737-1809, Anglo-American political theorist, writer)
The government has a very critical role to play in a very large range of social problems but social problems will be solved only after every organization pitches in to help.
Gregg Petersmeyer
That state is best ordered when the wicked have no command, and the good have.
Pittacus (650-570 BC, Greek statesman)
The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.
Plato (BC 427?-347?, Greek philosopher)
It is easy to rule over the good.
Titus Maccius Plautus (BC 254-184, Roman comic poet)
For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.
Alexander Pope (1688-1744, British poet, critic, translator)
In the councils of a state, the question is not so much, what ought to be done? As, what can be done?
French Proverb (Sayings of French origin)
Office without pay makes thieves.
German Proverb (Sayings of German origin)
Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618, British courtier, navigator, writer)
Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, American President (40th))
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, American President (40th))
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, American President (40th))
Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, American President (40th))
A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.
James Reston (1909-1995, Dutch-born American journalist)
The ship of state is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.
James Reston (1909-1995, Dutch-born American journalist)
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
Will Rogers (1879-1935, American humorist, actor)
I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will Rogers (1879-1935, American humorist, actor)
The will of the people shall be the basis of th authority of government...
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962, American First Lady, columnist, lecturer, humanitarian)
It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945, American President (32nd))
The government is us; we are the government, you and I.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, American President (26th))
There is something to be said for government by a great aristocracy which has furnished leaders to the nation in peace and war for generations; even a democrat like myself must admit this. But there is absolutely nothing to be said for government by a plutocracy, for government by men very powerful in certain lines and gifted with the "money touch," but with ideals which in their essence are merely those of so many glorified pawnbrokers.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, American President (26th))
I don't judge a regime by the damning criticism of the opposition, but by the ingenuous praise of the partisan.
Jean Rostand (1894-1977, French biologist, writer)
The body politic, as well as the human body, begins to die as soon as it is born, and carries within itself the causes of its destruction.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778, Swiss political philosopher, educationist, essayist)
The art of government is the organization of idolatry. The bureaucracy consists of functionaries; the aristocracy, of idols; the democracy, of idolaters. The populace cannot understand the bureaucracy: it can only worship the national idols.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, Irish-born British dramatist)
There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate government action.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970, British philosopher, mathematician, essayist)
The mechanism that directs government cannot be virtuous, because it is impossible to thwart every crime, to protect oneself from every criminal without being criminal too; that which directs corrupt mankind must be corrupt itself; and it will never be by means of virtue, virtue being inert and passive, that you will maintain control over vice, which is ever active: the governor must be more energetic than the governed.
Marquis De Sade (1740-1814, French author)
In our consumer confidence surveys, we ask people whether they think government economic policy is good, fair, or poor. Increasingly, the answer we get is just plain laughter.
Jay Schmiedeskamp
In our consumer confidence surveys, we ask people whether they think government economic policy is good, fair, or poor. Increasingly, the answer we get is just plain laughter.
Jay Schmiedeskamp
Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950, Irish-born British dramatist)
No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet everyone thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades, that of government.
Socrates (BC 469-399, Greek philosopher of Athens)
Society is well governed when its people obey the magistrates, and the magistrates obey the law.
Solon (636-558 BC, Greek statesman)
The auditor is a watchdog and not a bloodhound.
Lord Justice Topes
The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.
Themistocles (528-462 BC Greek statesman, soldier)
Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)
That government is best which governs least.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)
The government of the world I live in was not framed, like that of Britain, in after-dinner conversations over the wine.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)
This American government -- what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)
In quiet and untroubled times it seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark, holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless, feeble man.
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910, Russian novelist, philosopher)
Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
Harry S. Truman (1884-1972, American President (33rd))
No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision.
Barbara Tuchman (1912-1989, American historian)
It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.
Mark Twain (1835-1910, American humorist, writer)
We have the best government that money can buy.
Mark Twain (1835-1910, American humorist, writer)
Taxation, like a lot of other things, is based on supply and demand. The government demands, and we supply.
Author Unknown
Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778, French historian, writer)
An ambassador is an honest person sent to lie abroad for their country.
Sir Henry Wotton (1568-1639, British diplomat, traveler, scholar, and poet)
Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading.
John Updike (1932-, American novelist, critic)
I love my government not least for the extent to which it leaves me alone.
John Updike (1932-, American novelist, critic)
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778, French historian, writer)
The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.
Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778, French historian, writer)
It is doubtful that the government knows much more than the public does about how government [economic] policies will work.
Allen W. Wallis
Government is not reason and it is not eloquence. It is force! Like fire it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
George Washington (1732-1799, American President (1st))
Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.
George Washington (1732-1799, American President (1st))
The whole country is one vast insane asylum and they're letting the worst patients run the place.
Robert Welch
The monarchy is a labor intensive industry.
Harold Wilson (1916-1995, British statesman, Prime Minister)
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