Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made.
Grover ClevelandRead
He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the idea that the wealthy can be trusted to care for the poor if the government supports them.
In this quote, Grover Cleveland is expressing skepticism about the notion that the rich, when given government support, will naturally take care of the less fortunate. Instead, he highlights a fundamental flaw in this thinking, suggesting that relying on the wealthy to be benevolent toward the poor is misguided and ignores the complexities of social responsibility and economic inequality.
Themes
GovernmentWealthResponsibilityPovertySocial Justice
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about economic inequality, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for governmental accountability.
More from Grover Cleveland
All quotes βUnswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement.
Grover ClevelandRead
Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people.
Grover ClevelandRead
Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.
Grover ClevelandRead
It is the responsibility of the citizens to support their government. It is not the responsibility of the government to support its citizens.
Grover ClevelandRead
Once the coffers of the federal government are opened to the public, there will be no shutting them again.
Grover ClevelandRead
Similar quotes
It is to be the assent and ratification of the several States, derived from the supreme authority in each State, the authority of the people themselves. The act, therefore establishing the Constitution, will not be a NATIONAL, but a FEDERAL act.
James MadisonRead
There's really no point to voting. If it made any difference, it would probably be illegal.
H. L. MenckenRead
The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
Chester A. ArthurRead
Fascist movements kill off their critics, literally or metaphorically, while democratic movements value, invite and even welcome criticism.
Parker PalmerRead
But if the laws are to be so trampled upon with impunity, and a minority is to dictate to the majority, there is an end put at one stroke to republican government, and nothing but anarchy and confusion is to be expected thereafter.
George WashingtonRead
We are paying a heavy political price for 20 years in which, as a party, we have played down our criticism of capitalism and soft-peddled our advocacy of socialism
Tony BennRead