I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.
Will RogersRead
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In a democracy, citizens are obligated to tolerate their government for a set term, regardless of its performance.
Will Rogers highlights a fundamental characteristic of democratic governance: the idea that the citizens of a democracy have to endure their elected government for a specified duration, such as four years in this case, even if the government fails to meet their expectations or fulfill its duties. This expression serves as a commentary on the challenges and responsibilities that come with participating in a democratic system, emphasizing the notion that public accountability is a drawn-out process.
Themes
DemocracyGovernmentCitizenshipAccountabilityVoting
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civic duties, a speaker might quote this to emphasize the importance of being active in a democracy.
More from Will Rogers
All quotes →People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.
Will RogersRead
Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.
Will RogersRead
The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it's been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.
Will RogersRead
Let advertisers spend the same amount of money improving their product that they do on advertising and they wouldn't have to advertise it.
Will RogersRead
The man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, 'How is the president?'
Will RogersRead
Similar quotes
Terrorism constitutes a direct attack on the values the UN stands for: the rule of law; the protection of civilians; peaceful resolution of conflicts; and mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures.
Kofi AnnanRead
I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.
Alexander WoollcottRead
A good government may, indeed, redress the grievances of an injured people; but a strong people can alone build up a great nation.
Thomas Francis MeagherRead
Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don't think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.
Kurt VonnegutRead
There are few genuine conservatives within the U.S. political system, and it is a sign of the intellectual corruption of the age that the honorable term 'conservatism' can be appropriated to disguise the advocacy of a powerful, lawless, aggressive and violent state, a welfare state for the rich dedicated to a lunatic form of Keynesian economic intervention that enhances state and private power while mortgaging the country's future.
Noam ChomskyRead
No government can be strong and flourishing while the national character is weak and degraded. A government must flourish and decay with its subjects; and, when a prince makes a law or performs an action which has a tendency to injure the character or prosperity of the nation, he injures himself.
Benjamin Robbins CurtisRead