Quotes on Controlling Government

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.

Experience teaches us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

It is not the function of government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.

The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.