Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made.
Grover ClevelandRead
Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The government should maintain a distance from dependency on its citizens, promoting self-reliance.
This quote suggests that while citizens may support their government, it is not the government's role to overly intervene or provide for the people's needs. Instead, citizens should strive for independence and self-sufficiency, relying on their own abilities and resources rather than expecting government support.
Themes
GovernmentSupportSelf-RelianceIndependenceCitizens
In practice
Example use cases
In a political debate discussing the role of government in citizens' lives.
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
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
The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people.
Grover ClevelandRead
Similar quotes
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
Robert A. HeinleinRead
I think Mrs Thatcher did more damage to democracy, equality, internationalism, civil liberties, freedom in this country than any other Prime Minister this century. When the euphoria surrounding her departure subsides you will find that in a year or two's time there will not be a Tory who admits ever supporting her. People in the street will say, thank God she's gone
Tony BennRead
I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
Thomas JeffersonRead
There does not have to be trade-off between growth and social protection. A democracy does not mean much if it doesn't respond to the needs and will of its people.
Michelle BacheletRead
I will splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.
John F. KennedyRead
Where I think historians can help preserve and actually restore democracy is to remind us of how we got it.
Stacey AbramsRead