Quotes on Government Politics

It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

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

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.

If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, a liberal is a conservative who's been arrested.

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.

Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none.