Explore a collection of the most beloved and motivational quotes and sayings about Government. Share these powerful messages with your loved ones on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or on your personal blog, and inspire the world with their wisdom. We've compiled the Top 100 Government Quotes and Sayings from 90 influential authors, including Lyn Nofziger,I. F. Stone,Robert A. Heinlein,Woodrow Wilson,William O. Douglas, for you to enjoy and share.

I don't like government, it's just that simple. By Lyn Nofziger Government Simple

If you want to know about governments, all you need to know is two words: Governments lie. By I. F. Stone Governments Words Lie

the government' - that's too sweeping a term. 'The government' is several million people, nearly a million in Washington alone. We have to ask ourselves: Whose toes were being stepped on? What person or persons? Not 'the government' - but what individuals? By Robert A. Heinlein Government Term Sweeping Washington Million

Government is merely an attempt to express the conscience of everybody, the average conscience of the nation, in the rules that everybody is commanded to obey. That is all it is. By Woodrow Wilson Conscience Government Nation Obey Attempt

The one governmental agency that has no ambition. By William O. Douglas Ambition Governmental Agency

[Government] is apprehended, not as a committee of citizens chosen to carry on the communal business of the whole population, but as a separate and autonomous corporation, mainly devoted to exploiting the population for the benefit of its own members. By H.l. Mencken Government Population Apprehended Corporation Members

The government to you is what God is to agnosticsonly to be invoked when your own well being is at stake. By Amitav Ghosh God Stake Government Agnosticsonly Invoked

A government of laws, and not of men By John Adams Laws Men Government

The government that governs best, governs best! By Jon Stewart Governs Government

Government is violence masquerading as answers to strangers' problems using other peoples' money. By Dan Mccall Government Money Violence Masquerading Answers

All legitimate government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily agreed upon by the parties to it, for the protection of their rights against wrong-doers. In its voluntary character it is precisely similar to an association for mutual protection against fire or shipwreck. By Lysander Spooner Company Voluntarily Wrongdoers Mutual Protection

Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand. By Benjamin Disraeli Govern Hand Control Machinery Controlled

I am the Federal Government. By Tom Delay Government Federal

Government has within it a tendency to abuse its powers. By John C. Calhoun Government Powers Tendency Abuse

A government that says what it means, and means what it says. By Tony Abbott Government

[Government]is cancerous in head and limbs;only its belly is sound, and the laws it excretes are the most strightforward shit in the world. By Otto Von Bismarck Government Limbs Sound World Cancerous

Government is the political representative of a natural equilibrium, of custom, of inertia; it is by no means a representative of reason. By George Santayana Representative Government Equilibrium Custom Inertia

The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breach or fraud by others, and to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. By Ayn Rand Protect Police Criminals Army Invaders

The government is good at one thing. It knows how to break your legs, and then hand you a crutch and say, "See if it weren't for the government, you wouldn't be able to walk". By Harry Browne Thing Government Good Legs Walk

Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort to diminish its powers and prerogatives. By H.l. Mencken Government Organism Refuses Extinction Acquiesce

Government is operated by deeply embedded, hopelessly entangled bureaus where nothing is accomplished because the function of the bureau is to intercept every living idea and smother it. By Gerry Spence Government Embedded Hopelessly Operated Deeply

A government builds its prestige upon the apparently voluntary association of the governed. By Mahatma Gandhi Governed Government Builds Prestige Apparently

It's not our government anymore. By Steve Madison Anymore Government

The proper and limited use of government is to invoke a common justice and keep the peace - and that is all. By Leonard Read Peace Proper Limited Government Invoke

Government! Government! What do I get for all I give, I'd like to know! Potholes and bombs! By Cecil Dawkins Government Give Potholes Bombs

A government is an institution that holds a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence. By Max Weber Violence Government Institution Holds Monopoly

Government exists only for the good of the governed. By Pythagoras Government Governed Exists Good

Government has the power to help improve well-being By David Cameron Government Wellbeing Power Improve

The government's only functions are to protect the rights of the individual; therefore, you need a police force and an army. By Neil Peart Individual Army Government Functions Protect

- Government -Free Shit for Idiots By Stefan Molyneux Government Free Idiots Shit

The government is an artificial creation, established by the people to defend everyone's equal right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And when the government does not fulfill that obligation, it is the right of the people, in the words of the Declaration of Independence, to 'alter or abolish' the government. By Howard Zinn Government People Liberty Creation Established

Sir, we have a saying in our country: 'There's no government, like no government. By James Wesley, Rawles Government Sir Country

Government can have no more than two legitimate purposes - the suppression of injustice against individuals within the community, and the common defense against external invasion. By William Godwin Government Purposes Community Invasion Legitimate

The government is there day in and day out, if you want all kids to have education, if you want to run courts, if you want to have an army, if you want to have roads, you've got to have the taxation system that funds everything that you expect. By Bill Gates Day Education Courts Army Roads

There's an old saying that the government is your partner from birth, but they don't get to come to all the meetings. By John C. Malone Birth Meetings Government Partner

Every function superadded to those already exercised by the government causes its influence over hopes and fears to be more widely diffused, and converts, more and more, the active and ambitious part of the public into hangers-on of the government, or of some party which aim, at becoming the government. By John Stuart Mill Government Diffused Converts Aim Function

That government which governs best, governs least. By Thomas Jefferson Governs Government

A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks. By John C. Calhoun Power Consisting Interests Combined Mass

If the Government gets into business on any large scale, we soon find that the beneficiaries attempt to play a large part in the control. While in theory it is to serve the public, in practice it will be very largely serving private interests. It comes to be regarded as a species of government favor and those who are the most adroit get the larger part of it. By Calvin Coolidge Large Scale Control Government Business

Not knowing who the particular individuals are, who call themselves "the government," the taxpayer does not know whom he pays his taxes to. All he knows is that a man comes to him, representing himself to be the agent of "the government" - that is, the agent of a secret band of robbers and murderers, who have taken to themselves the title of "the government," and have determined to kill everybody who refuses to give them whatever money they demand. By Lysander Spooner Government Agent Knowing Individuals Call

Government not just for a few, it belongs to the common people. By Narendra Modi Government People Belongs Common

Formerly government was the responsibility of people; now people were the responsibility of government. By Garet Garrett Responsibility Government People

Governments are just large corporations, and large corporations are just small governments. By Joel T. Mcgrath Large Corporations Governments Small

Government is the enemy until you need a friend. By William Cohen Government Friend Enemy

The private citizen today has come to feel rather like a deaf spectator in the back row, who ought to keep his mind on the mystery off there, but cannot quite manage to keep awake. He knows he is somehow affected by what is going on. Rules and regulations continually, taxes annually and wars occasionally remind him that he is being swept along by great drifts of circumstance. Yet these public affairs are in no convincing way his affairs. They are for the most part invisible. They are managed, if they are managed at all, at distant centers, from behind the scenes, by unnamed powers. By Walter Lippmann Row Awake Private Citizen Today

After my time working for the government as a soldier, I reacquainted myself with the possibilities of government as a force for good beyond its awesome capacity as a force in war and security. By Wes Moore Government Force Soldier Security Time

What is government but theft by consent? By Scott Lynch Consent Government Theft

Government is an institution which prevents injustice other than such as it commits itself. By Ibn Khaldun Government Institution Prevents Injustice Commits

Decried every day as a feckless thing without initiative or ambition, a thing not to be mentioned in the same breath as private enterprise, government became that thing. First sequester its responsibilities, sell off its functions, grant it no respect; run it into the ground and then declare it incompetent. By Don Watson Thing Decried Ambition Enterprise Government

Government is necessary to defend communities from miseries from within themselves; from the prevalence of intestine discord, mutual injustice and violence; the members of the society continually making a prey one of another, without any defence one from another. By Jonathan Edwards Government Discord Mutual Violence Defend

Government doesn't work. You work, I work, Federal Express works, Microsoft works, the Salvation Army works, Alcoholics Anonymous works, but government doesn't. By Harry Browne Works Work Government Federal Microsoft

Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading. By John Updike Government Madness Shading Organized Benevolence

What is this thing we call government? Is it anything but organized violence? The law orders you to obey, and if you don't obey, it will compel you by force - all governments, all law and authority finally rest on force and violence, on punishment or fear of punishment. By Alexander Berkman Violence Thing Call Obey Law

You see, I'm from your government, and I'm here to help you. By Bruce Sterling Government

People constantly speak of 'the government' doing this or that, as they might speak of God doing it. But the government is really nothing but a group of men, and usually they are very inferior men. They may have some better man working for them, but they themselves are seldom worthy of any respect. By H.l. Mencken Speak God Government People Men

Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness. By Fred Woodworth Government Evil Unnecessary Human Behavior

The basic function of the government everywhere in all times, whatever title it adopts and whatever its origin and organisation may be, is always that of oppressing and exploiting the masses, of defending the oppressors and the exploiters: and it's principal, characteristic and indispensable instruments are the police agent and the tax-collector, the soldier and the gaoler - to whom must be invariably added the trader in lies, be he priest of schoolmaster, remunerated or protected by the government to enslave minds and make them docilely accept the yoke. By Errico Malatesta Government Times Masses Exploiters Principal

As a rule, the Government appoints its friends. By Hector-Louis Langevin Government Rule Friends Appoints

This administration in Washington that's in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it's the most qualified to make the most central decisions for every American in every area. By Rick Perry Washington American Area Administration Power

And government (to define it de facto, or according to modern prudence) is an art whereby some man, or some few men, subject a city or a nation, and rule it according to his or their private interest; which, because the laws in such cases are made according to the interest of a man, or of some few families, may be said to be the empire of men, and not of laws. By James Harrington Man Men Interest Laws Government

In a state-run society the government promises you security. But it's a false promise predicated on the idea that the opposite of security is risk. Nothing could be further from the truth. The opposite of security is insecurity, and the only way to overcome insecurity is to take risks. The gentle government that promises to hold your hand as you cross the street refuses to let go on the other side. By Theodore J. Forstmann Security Promises Staterun Society Opposite

The single definition of government I've ever seen that makes sense is that it's the organization which claims the right to kill people who won't do what it wants. By Poul Anderson Single Definition Government Makes Sense

The government is mainly an expensive organization to regulate evildoers, and tax those who behave: government does little for fairly respectable people except annoy them. By E.w. Howe Evildoers Behave Government Expensive Organization

The grossest, the cruelest, the most selfish, the most easily pervertible and perverted thing in this world, is government. By Henry Ward Beecher Grossest Cruelest Selfish World Government

Government breeds more government, and a lobbying infrastructure to defend itself. By George F. Will Government Breeds Lobbying Infrastructure Defend

A thoughtful and well-informed consideration of US government in relation to American society. By Ian Harris American Society Thoughtful Wellinformed Consideration

A mere enumeration of government activity is evidence often the sole evidence offered of "inadequate" nongovernment institutions, whose "inability" to cope with problems "obviously" required state intervention. Government is depicted as acting not in response to its own political incentives and constraints but because it is compelled to do so by concern for the public interest: it "cannot keep its hands off" when so "much is at stake," when emergency "compels" it to supersede other decision making processes. Such a tableau simple ignores the possibility that there are political incentives for the production and distribution of "emergencies" to justify expansions of power as well as to use episodic emergencies as a reason for creating enduring government institutions. By Thomas Sowell Evidence Inadequate Inability Government Institutions

Government is an unnecessary evil. By Jeff Berwick Government Evil Unnecessary

All you have to do is ask yourselves, who controls the government? And who are the victims of that control? By Assata Shakur Government Controls Control Victims

Government arrogates to itself that it alone forms men. Everybody knows that government never began anything. It is the whole world that thinks and governs. By Wendell Phillips Men Government Arrogates Forms Governs

The most powerful force possessed by the individual citizen is her own government ... Government is the only organized mechanism that makes possible that level of shared disinterest known as the public good. By John Ralston Saul Government Powerful Force Possessed Individual

Government is the agent of those who are too refined to do their own mugging. By Joseph Sobran Government Mugging Agent Refined

The government is a giant logjam in the eternal river of human potential. By Stefan Molyneux Potential Government Giant Logjam Eternal

Here then is the origin and rise of government; namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world; here too is the design and end of government, viz. Freedom and security. By Thomas Paine Government World Origin Rise Mode

The business of government is justice. By Millicent Fenwick Justice Business Government

It is a mistake to assume that government must necessarily last forever. The institution marks a certain stage of civilization-is natural to a particular phase of human development. It is not essential, but incidental. As amongst the Bushmen we find a state antecedent to government, so may there be one in which it shall have become extinct. By Herbert Spencer Forever Mistake Assume Necessarily Government

Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling. By Robert A. Heinlein Government Stupid Fumbling Parasitic Fourths

The business of the government is the business of the people. By John F. Kennedy Business People Government

What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you By Tony Benn Power Accountable Interests Exercise Rid

Government is itself an art, one of the subtlest of the arts. It is neither business, nor technology, nor applied science. It is the art of making men live together in peace and with reasonable happiness. By Felix Frankfurter Government Subtlest Art Business Technology

The government's like a mule, it's slow and it's sure; it's slow to turn, and it's sure to turn the way you don't want it. By Ellen Glasgow Slow Turn Mule Government

The government is best which makes itself unnecessary. By Wilhelm Von Humboldt Unnecessary Government Makes

The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop. By P. J. O'rourke Work Question Nowadays Government Stop

If you spend your own money on yourself, you care how much you spend and how well you spend it. If you spend your own money on someone else, you care how much you spend, but you don't care how well it is spent. If you spend someone else's money on yourself, you don't care how much you spend, but you do care how well it is spent. And finally, if you spend someone else's money on someone else, you don't care how much you spend, and you don't care how well it is spent. That is government. By Milton Friedman Spend Care Money Spent Finally

Government originated in the attempt to find a form of association that defends and protects the person and property of each with the common force of all. By Jean-Jacques Rousseau Government Originated Attempt Find Form

Modern government has become a universal transfer agency that utilizes the political process for distributing vast measures of income and wealth. It preys on millions of victims in order to allocate valuable goods and services to its beneficiaries. By Hans F. Sennholz Modern Wealth Government Universal Transfer

All free governments, whatever their name, are in reality governments by public opinion ; and it is on the quality of this public opinion that their prosperity depends. It is, therefore, their first duty to purify the element from which they draw the breath of life. By James Russell Lowell Public Opinion Governments Depends Free

Ideally, government is the means by which all the individual wills are assured complete freedom of moral choice and at the same time prevented from ever clashing. By W. H. Auden Ideally Government Clashing Individual Assured

Government is at best useless, and at worst counter-productive. By Kakha Bendukidze Government Useless Counterproductive Worst

You either limit the government, or you limit the scope of your life. Why is the government that precious to you in the first place? By A.e. Samaan Limit Life Government Scope Place

A government is one that thinks and hears the voice of the poor. A government must live for the poor. By Narendra Modi Poor Government Hears Voice Live

It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. Government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus. By Murray N. Rothbard Santa Claus Government Selfless Quasidivine

Government should be a place where people can come together, and no one gets left behind. No one ... gets left behind. An instrument of good. By Aaron Sorkin Government Left Place People Good

Today government touches everything in America and harms almost everything it touches. Federal, state, and local governments together spend 42 out of every 100 dollars we earn. Those who do the taxing and spending have long since ceased to work for the people as a whole. Rather, they work for themselves and for their clients-the education industry, the welfare culture, public-employee unions, etc.. By Malcolm Wallop America Touches Today Harms Work

A government is not an old pair of socks that you throw away. By Boris Yeltsin Government Pair Socks Throw

Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself. By H.l. Mencken Pretensions Preserve Holding Individual Governments

Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God. Try it, if you don't believe it. Seek through the legislative halls of America and find, if you can, the Government. In the end you will be doomed to confer with the agent, as before. By Voltairine De Cleyre God Unreal Intangible Government Unapproachable

Governments arise either out of the people or over the people. By Thomas Paine People Governments Arise

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents. By James Madison Government Real Power Lies Oppression

If you live in a place that you perceive to be a crowded place, you appreciate government; you see it as this thing that protects you against crime, that keeps order, that makes sure that nobody puts a massage parlor next to your house, that keeps other people's dogs from pooping on the sidewalk. By Gail Collins Place Government Crime Order House