The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.
Interpretation
Minimal government interference in personal and business activities leads to greater overall prosperity.
This quote by Martin Van Buren suggests that when the government reduces its involvement in the activities of individuals and businesses, it creates a more favorable environment for prosperity and economic growth. It implies that freedom in private pursuits allows for innovation, productivity, and better resources allocation, leading to a thriving society.
In practice
In a discussion about economic policies, one might say, 'As Martin Van Buren stated, the less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.'
To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences, I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as are clearly with the constitutional authority of the Federal Government.
In time of peace there can, at all events, be no justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under such circumstances be performed without such a resort.
It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.
Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.
I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to believe are not found on the executive calendar of any country.
The government should not be guided by Temporary Excitement, but by Sober Second Thought.
The Iraq war that I signed up for was launched on false premises. The American people were misled. Now, whether that was due to bad faith or simply mistakes in intelligence, I can't say for sure. But I can say it shows the problem of putting too much faith in intelligence systems without debating them in public.
It is an axiom of political science in the United States that the sole means of neutralizing the effects of newspapers is to multiply their number.
The depositary of power is always unpopular.
The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.
Every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term a right to employ all the means requisite . . . to the attainment of the ends of such power.
Democracy cannot consist solely of elections that are nearly always fictitious and managed by rich landowners and professional politicians.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.