Government Quotes

Candidly, I believe most corporations actually don't mind big government.
– Rick Santorum
By the time Obama came into office, Washington had already agreed over a period of a few weeks to a $700 billion government infusion into the world banking system. Nothing of the sort had ever been done before, and it was done spit spot with very little national debate.
– John Podhoretz
By making bold cuts in spending and commonsense entitlement reforms, we will make our government simpler, smaller, and smarter.
– Mitt Romney
But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
– Lysander Spooner
But those who believe that what our people desire is big government are living in a state of delusion.
– Marco Rubio
But then it hasn't really been a focus of our government to make us an educated people.
– Maynard James Keenan
But ours was intended to be a citizen government. It is what of, by and for the people means. And when our most important issue in California is the creation of jobs, I think it's quite helpful to have someone in the U.S. Senate or in the governor's seat who actually knows where jobs come from.
– Carly Fiorina
But no one has yet succeeded in reducing the size or scope of the federal government.
– James Q. Wilson
But let us remember, at the same time, government is sacred, and not to be trifled with.
– Jonathan Mayhew
But I think it's up to a local congregation to determine whether or not a marriage should be blessed of God. And it shouldn't be up to the government.
– Tony Campolo
But I don't want massive layoffs of anyone - public or private. We are planning on shrinking government through attrition and reform, not through random pink slips.
– Scott Walker
But America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights. That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests.That we shouldn't be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.
– Marco Rubio
Both my parents are English and came out to Australia in 1967. I was born the following year. My parents, and immigrants like them, were known as '£10 poms.' Back then, the Australian government was trying to get educated British people and Canadians - to be honest, educated white people - to come and live in Australia.
– Hugh Jackman
Big-government proponents embrace both the power of the federal government and the idea that millions of Americans ought to be dependent on its largesse. It's time to return to our Founders' love for small government. More is not always better.
– Gary Bauer
Barack Obama's enemies are the people who make this country work. Barack Obama's enemies are those who succeed. Those are the people whose income he wants to redistribute. Those are the people whose income he wants to take, using the power and the force of the federal government to do it.
– Rush Limbaugh
Attending that Convention and talking with those people and many others convinced me that I should become a blogger in my efforts to reform the government and uphold the integrity of the Constitution and the laws made in furtherance thereof.
– John Jay Hooker
At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East, we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.
– William Hague
As the prospect of a Tory government gets nearer, many traditional Labour voters - some who switched away in recent times and many who stayed at home - seem more determined to prevent that happening.
– Lucy Powell
As the economy faces such difficulties, more tough questions need to be asked about what the Tories would do if elected. Their ideology of free markets and small government needs challenging. That has to be part of our job.
– Lucy Powell
As someone who worked hard for a Labour victory in the 90s, do I regret it? Not really. It was bound to happen. And it'll happen with the next government, and the one after it. Because all governments serve us. They serve the filth.
– Stephen Fry
As president, Reagan worked very well with Democrats to do big things. It is true that he worked to reduce the size of government and cut federal taxes and he eliminated many regulations, but he also raised taxes when necessary.
– Arnold Schwarzenegger
As President Bush has said on numerous occasions, it is the government's role to create the conditions, the friendly environment, that will attract capital.
– Donald Evans
As more people rely on government programs, the harder it becomes to conduct the necessary reforms to preserve them to help our society's most vulnerable.
– Jim DeMint
As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.
– Andrew Jackson
As I speak to you today, government censors somewhere are working furiously to erase my words from the records of history. But history itself has already condemned these tactics.
– Hillary Clinton
As far as your personal goals are and what you actually want to do with your life, it should never have to do with the government. You should never depend on the government for your retirement, your financial security, for anything. If you do, you're screwed.
– Drew Carey
As an artist I have an even more abiding interest in the compact between the Arts and Government.
– Theodore Bikel
As Americans, we don't see the role of government as guaranteeing outcomes, but allowing free men and women to flourish based on their own vision, their hard work and their personal responsibility.
– Rick Perry
Are we still a country that takes risks, that innovates, that believes anything is possible? Or are we a country that is resigned to whatever liberty the government decides to dish out?
– Mitch McConnell
Anyone who saw Nagasaki would suddenly realize that they'd been kept in the dark by the United States government as to what atomic bombs can do.
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti
And you can't have a prosperous economy when the government is way overspending, raising tax rates, printing too much money, over regulating and restricting free trade. It just can't be done.
– Arthur Laffer
And some of what we're doing in Government even now, some of the welfare reform programs that are helping lone mothers come into work are based on things that were very new under the Labour Government in the eighties.
– Patricia Hewitt
And on the other hand, we see that the Israeli government is attacking that part of the Palestinian leader.
– Rafik Hariri
And I just think that we're at a point in our economic life here in our state - and - and, candidly, across the country, where increased taxes is just the wrong way to go. The people of our state are not convinced that state government, county government, local government has done all they can with the money we already give them, rather than the money that we have before.
– Chris Christie
And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.
– James Madison
And I don't think that government has a role in telling people how to live their lives. Maybe a minister does, maybe your belief in God does, maybe there's another set of moral codes, but I don't think government has a role.
– Clarence Thomas
And I can tell you that history will back up what I'm about to say and that is that there is no government run by conservatives, Republicans, put whoever you want there, if you give government the opportunity to spend more money than it has, it will do it. It will do it every time.
– Marco Rubio
And here's the fact: the fact is it doesn't solve the problem. First of all, if you taxed these people at 100 percent, basically next year you said, 'Look, every penny you make next year the government's going to take it from you,' it still doesn't solve the debt.
– Marco Rubio
And gradually they're beginning to recognize the fact that there's nothing more secure than a democratic, accountable, and participatory form of government. But it's sunk in only theoretically, it has not yet sunk in completely in practical terms.
– Wole Soyinka
Americans want government that is leaner, more efficient, and less intrusive into their personal lives.
– Rick Perry
Americans chose a limited government that exists to protect our rights, not to grant them.
– Marco Rubio
America's greatness is not found in the size of its government. America's greatness resides in the hearts and the minds of the people.
– Rick Perry
Although my seat is a contest between Labour and the Lib Dems, it could well make the difference between a Labour and a Tory government at the next election. In terms of international development, this choice is a very clear one.
– Lucy Powell
Also, when you escape a Communist regime, you treasure liberty and you understand that as government and state expand, liberty must contract.
– Dennis Prager
All's the government should do is keep the taxes and regulations at a manageable rate, keep a decent standing army and get out of the way.
– Adam Carolla
All too often, government's response to social breakdown has been a classic case of 'patching' - a case of handing money out, containing problems and limiting the damage but, in doing so, supporting - even reinforcing - dysfunctional behaviour.
– Iain Duncan Smith
All the measures of the Government are directed to the purpose of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
– William Henry Harrison
All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities.
– James F. Cooper
All of us should have free choice when it comes to patriotic displays... a government wisely acting within its bounds will earn loyalty and respect from its citizens. A government dare not demand the same.
– Jesse Ventura
Aggression is simply another name for government.
– Benjamin Tucker
After-school tutoring programs, care for the elderly, shelters for the homeless, disaster relief work, and a variety of other services would all benefit from government funding.
– Tony Campolo
Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden.
– Isaac Watts
Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.
– William Godwin
A world in which government is burdened by historic debt, philanthropy has limited resources, and the private sector is only interested in its own personal gain is simply unsustainable.
– Simon Mainwaring
A tiny and closed fraternity of privileged men, elected by no one, and enjoying a monopoly sanctioned and licensed by government.
– Spiro T. Agnew
A reporter's ability to keep the bond of confidentiality often enables him to learn the hidden or secret aspects of government.
– Bob Woodward
A president who breaks the law is a threat to the very structure of our government.
– Al Gore
A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.
– James Madison
A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.
– Woodrow Wilson
A government of laws, and not of men.
– John Adams
A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves.
– Grover Cleveland
A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.
– Thomas Jefferson
'Hello my name is the Republican Party and I got a problem. I'm addicted to spending and big government.' I'd like one of them just to stand up and say that.
– Glenn Beck
The fate of every democracy, of every government based on the sovereignty of the people, depends on the choices it makes between these opposite principles, absolute power on the one hand, and on the other the restraints of legality and the authority of tradition.
– John Acton
The happiness of society is the end of government.
– John Adams
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
– John Adams
There is a human capital crisis in the federal government. Not only are we losing the decades of talent as civil servants retire, we are not doing enough to develop and nurture the next generation of public servants.
– Daniel Akaka
In 1935, when the Social Security system was created, the Government did not need to prepare for the possibility of a depleted system.
– Wayne Allard
It has been more than 30 years since this disgraceful episode occurred, and I believe that the United States government should demand the return of the USS Pueblo to the United States Navy without further delay.
– Wayne Allard
The incestuous relationship between government and big business thrives in the dark.
– Jack Anderson
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government.
– Aristotle
It is acknowledged, namely, that there are in the world three forms of government, autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy: autocracies and oligarchies are administered according to the tempers of their lords, but democratic states according to established laws.
– Aeschines
What Section 907 [of the Freedom Support Act] means to Azerbaijan is that we are the only country among the 15 Republics of the former Soviet Union which is being deprived of direct U.S. assistance. For instance, the Armenian government gets approximately $100 million each year from the United States. Our government receives nothing.
– Ilham Aliyev
Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.
– Walter Bagehot
The best reason why Monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardly anywhere in the world understand any other.
– Walter Bagehot
While there may be little evidence that Iraq has ties to al-Qaeda or to the attacks of Sept. 11, there is no question that its present government, under Saddam Hussein, is an outlaw regime, is in violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, is embarked upon a program of developing weapons of mass destruction and is a threat to peace and stability.
– James Baker
Any time the United States government turns over an American citizen, including military personnel, to the government of another country, it is in our nature to want to make sure that they receive the best treatment, the fairest treatment, and the most humane treatment.
– Howard Baker
I intend to travel to Okinawa and to visit with Okinawa officials and the citizens of Okinawa at an early date. I will send my best analysis of that situation, including the local attitudes, back to Washington, to the government there.
– Howard Baker
I think and hope and believe that the Japanese government and the people of Japan will be happy and content with the progress of justice in this case and that it will not become a great issue in the future.
– Howard Baker
I think it is a great tribute to the Government of Japan and to those who were handling it, including the Foreign Minister and the Prime Minister, that we were able to negotiate at the highest levels - I mean the President, the Secretary of State, and then my opportunity - without high emotionalism.
– Howard Baker
We must examine then the concerns of the Government of Japan about the language of the treaty itself - of SOFA - and of the interim and further arrangements that have been made since 1995, and see whether or not we need to make any changes. Those are decisions I cannot make.
– Howard Baker
Providing for the common good, making people feel secure in their communities and homes - this is the central job of government. it's why all of us are here serving our state and our people.
– John Elias Baldacci
When Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon spokespeople say to you, 'Well, this is going to be a long war, we're going to be in Afghanistan for the long haul,' what that euphemism means is that the moratorium on criticizing the government must be extended longer and longer and longer - ideally, beyond the 2002 election.
– Alec Baldwin
One can imagine the government's problem. This is all pretty magical stuff to them. If I were trying to terminate the operations of a witch coven, I'd probably seize everything in sight. How would I tell the ordinary household brooms from the getaway vehicles?
– John Perry Barlow
Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.
– John Perry Barlow
The primary function of the government is - and here I am quoting directly from the U.S. Constitution - to spew out paper.
– Dave Barry
You can talk about capitalism and communism and all that sort of thing, but the important thing is the struggle everybody is engaged in to get better living conditions, and they are not interested too much in government.
– Bernard Baruch
It is, perhaps, not generally known that the Portuguese, as early as 1710, had a fair knowledge of the Amazons; but the information gathered by their Government, from various expeditions undertaken on a grand scale, was long withheld from the rest of the world, through the jealous policy which ruled in their colonial affairs.
– Henry Walter Bates
None of the people who flocked to Barra on the establishment of the new government seemed to care about the cultivation of the soil and the raising of food, although these would have been most profitable speculations.
– Henry Walter Bates
Years of conciliatory government, the lesson learned by the native party and the moderation of the Portuguese, aided by the indolence and passive goodness of the Paraenses of all classes and colours, were only beginning to produce their good effects about the time I am speaking of.
– Henry Walter Bates
I certainly believe that UFOs are really on occasion extraterrestrial craft visiting earth, so to me that means that our government, our military at some level they know they're here, and they're either frightened of them because they don't know, or they wish to figure a way to defend against them.
– Art Bell
Our government, at least according to the NIGHTLINE program that ran, financed STAR GATE over 20 years with 20 million dollars or something like that, at the end of which they more or less declared it to be a failure, and stopped the program.
– Art Bell
Ethics in government has always been important to me.
– Chris Bell
In our civilization, and under our republican form of government, intelligence is so highly honored that it is rewarded by exemption from the cares of office.
– Ambrose Bierce
I believe that people who do not vote in this country have no right to complain about the government that we are now living under. By the same token, if you don't really vote in television, you're never going to have your way. Write a letter to the president of the network.
– Bill Bixby
A union of government and religion tends to destroy government and degrade religion.
– Hugo Black
In revealing the workings of government that led to the Vietnam War, the newspapers nobly did precisely that which the Founders hoped and trusted they would do.
– Hugo Black
Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell.
– Hugo Black
The Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to bare the secrets of government and inform the people.
– Hugo Black
Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government, and I will lead it as a party of government.
– Tony Blair