Government Quotes

500+ Sourced quotes

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

Abraham Lincoln

The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations,

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent.

Thomas Jefferson

The destiny of America was proclaimed in words of prophecy spoken by our first President in his first inaugural in 1789 — words almost directed, it would seem, to this year of 1941: "The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered … deeply,... finally, staked on the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people."

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The primary object of non-co-operation is nowhere stated to be paralysis of the Government. The primary object is self-purification.

Just as a royal rule, if not a mere name, must exist by virtue of some great personal superiority in the king, so tyranny, which is the worst of governments, is necessarily the farthest removed from a well-constituted form; oligarchy is little better, for it is a long way from aristocracy, and democracy is the most tolerable of the three.

The further the departure from direct and constant control by the citizens, the less has the government of the ingredient of republicanism...

Thomas Jefferson

It is a misnomer to call a government republican in which a branch of the supreme power is independent of the nation.

Thomas Jefferson

The corruption of each government almost always begins with that of its principles.

The foundations of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections of its citizens, and command the respect of the world.

George Washington

Is it not possible that an individual may be right and a government wrong? Are laws to be enforced simply because they were made? Or declared by any number of men to be good, if they are NOT good?

Henry David Thoreau

Governments not only are not necessary, but are harmful and most highly immoral institutions.

But the fall of Ramadi has galvanized the Iraqi government. So, with the additional steps I ordered last month, we're speeding up training of ISIL forces, including volunteers from Sunni tribes in Anbar Province.

The mission of this government is much more than the promotion of economic progress. It is to renew the spirit and solidarity of the nation.

Margaret Thatcher

In free governments the rulers are the servants and the people are their superiors and sovereigns.

Benjamin Franklin

My policy has been, and will continue to be, while I have the honor to remain in the administration of the government, to be upon friendly terms with, but independent of, all the nations of the earth. To share in the broils of none. To fulfil our own engagements. To supply the wants, and be carriers for them all: Being thoroughly convinced that it is our policy and interest to do so.

George Washington

If the Socialism is Authoritarian; if there are Governments armed with economic power as they are now with political power; if, in a word, we are to have Industrial Tyrannies, then the last state of man will be worse than the first.

Enlightened business is learning that competition ought not to cause bad social consequences which inevitably react upon the profits of business itself. All but the hopelessly reactionary will agree that to conserve our primary resources of man power, government must have some control over maximum hours, minimum wages, the evil of child labor and the exploitation of unorganized labor.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Excess generally causes reaction, and produces a change in the opposite direction, whether it be in the seasons, or in individuals, or in governments.

It will at least be a recommendation to the proposed constitution that it is provided with more checks and barriers against the introduction of tyranny, and those of a nature less liable to be surmounted, than any government hitherto instituted among mortals hath possessed.

George Washington

We shall take whatever action is necessary to contain the growth of the money supply. The government, unlike so many of its predecessors, will face up to economic realities.

Margaret Thatcher

Government of the people by the people and for the people cannot be conducted at the bidding of one man, however great he may be.

Where death without resistance or death after resistance is the only way, neither party should think of resorting to law-courts or help from the government.

No matter what the cause was and wherever it was, Indian governments must never requisition the services of British soldiers to deal with civil disturbances.

It has been a long fight to put the control of our economic system in the hands of the government.

Eleanor Roosevelt