Plato: Politics
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
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Anonymous: Politics
The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independence, but government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.
(National Review)
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Lord Acton: Politics
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern.
(Letter to Mary Gladstone, 24 April 1881)
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President John Adams: Politics
Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.
(Thoughts on Government, 1776)
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President John Adams: Politics
A constitution founded on these principles introduces knowledge among the people, and inspires them with a conscious dignity becoming freemen; a general emulation takes place, which causes good humor, sociability, good manners, and good morals to be general. That elevation of sentiment inspired by such a government, makes the common people brave and enterprising. That ambition which is inspired by it makes them sober, industrious, and frugal.
(Thoughts on Government, 1776)
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President John Adams: Politics
Such is the amiable and interesting system of government (and such are some of the abuses to which it may be exposed) which the people of America have exhibited to the admiration and anxiety of the wise and virtuous of all nations for eight years under the administration of a citizen who, by a long course of great actions, regulated by prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude, conducting a people inspired with the same virtues and animated with the same ardent patriotism and love of liberty to independence and peace, to increasing wealth and unexampled prosperity, has merited the gratitude of his fellow-citizens, commanded the highest praises of foreign nations, and secured immortal glory with posterity. In that retirement which is his voluntary choice may he long live to enjoy the delicious recollection of his services, the gratitude of mankind, the happy fruits of them to himself and the world, which are daily increasing, and that splendid prospect of the future fortunes of this country which is opening from year to year. His name may be still a rampart, and the knowledge that he lives a bulwark, against all open or secret enemies of his country's peace. This example has been recommended to the imitation of his successors by both Houses of Congress and by the voice of the legislatures and the people throughout the nation.
(Speaking during his own inauguration of his predecessor Washington)
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Samuel Adams: Politics
It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
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Fisher Ames: Politics
The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.
(Speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, 1788)
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William Borah: Politics
The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments.
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James Bovard: Politics
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
(1994)
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Justice Louis Brandeis: Politics
Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
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James Bryce: Politics
The People, though we think of a great entity when we use the word, means nothing more than so many millions of individual men.
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Alexander Chase: Politics
When a machine begins to run without human aid, it is time to scrap it - whether it be a factory or a government.
(Perspectives, 1966)
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Winston Churchill: Politics
Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time.
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Alan Coren: Politics
Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear.
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Elmer Davis: Politics
Applause, mingled with boos and hisses, is about all that the average voter is able or willing to contribute to public life.
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Prime Minister Benjamin Disreali: Politics
From bondage to spiritual faith
From spiritual faith to great courage
From courage to liberty
From liberty to abundance
From abundance to selfishness
From selfishness to complacency
From complacency to apathy
From apathy to dependence
From dependence back into bondage
(Attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. Unverified.)
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Larry Flynt: Politics
Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights. Because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper.
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Theodore Forstmann: Politics
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.
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John Gardner: Politics
It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.
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Richard Goodwin: Politics
People come to Washington believing it's the center of power. I know I did. It was only much later that I learned that Washington is a steering wheel that's not connected to the engine.
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Sidney J. Harris: Politics
Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.
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Frank Herbert: Politics
When religion and politics ride in the same cart, the whirlwind follows.
(Spoken by Reverend Mother Ramallo - character from Dune)
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Christopher Hoctor: Politics
A political divide, no matter how narrow, is a divide. A political debate is the joining of minds. Successful politics is bending the will of your opponent, and bending yourself so you both share the burden and reward. Speak not of politics without a sense of humor, humility, and thick skin. Speak not if you are passionate but not willing to withstand an equal measure of passion in return.
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Christopher Hoctor: Politics
Stamp out political correctness; before it destroys our time-tested traditions, before we lose the ability to complement one another, before we are overcome with fear when addressing one another.
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Christopher Hoctor: Politics
The Constitution does not provision a right to free speech; it says Congress may make no law abridging freedom of speech. A right is an inherent and fundamental gift for all mankind. Some countries trample on people's rights, America is pretty darn good about protecting them. Freedom is another thing, it is NOT inherent, it is NOT free, and it costs money and lives to protect our freedoms. Therefore, freedoms inherently come with responsibility. Having a freedom is something you should cherish, respect, and practice with temperance. You should be grateful to those that defend your freedoms. People who abuse their freedom of speech earn the right to be given an equal measure of abuse in return. God bless America.
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Christopher Hoctor: Politics
Allowing people to exercise their freedoms does not always seem to help the cause (i.e. flag burning, which I abhor), but a measured tolerance provides a greater strength. With that balance set in stone, the entire country needs the best tool to counter the adverse effects of this freedom; Education.
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Robert Maynard Hutchins: Politics
The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.
(Great Books, 1954)
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John Jay: Politics
Wisely, therefore, do they consider union and a good national government as necessary to put and keep them in such a situation as, instead of inviting war, will tend to repress and discourage it. That situation consists in the best possible state of defense, and necessarily depends on the government, the arms, and the resources of the country.
(Federalist No. 4)
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President Thomas Jefferson: Politics
All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride legitimately, by the grace of God.
Letter to Roger C. Weightman, June 24, 1826
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President Thomas Jefferson: Politics
I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. 1802
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Walter H. Judd: Politics
People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing.
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Dr. Martin Luther King: Politics
History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.
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James Madison: Politics
Whatever may be the judgement pronounced on the competency of the architects of the Constitution, or whatever may be the destiny of the edifice prepared by them, I feel it a duty to express my profound and solemn conviction ... that there never was an assembly of men, charged with a great and arduous trust, who were more pure in their motives, or more exclusively or anxiously devoted to the object committed to them.
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James Madison: Politics
There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
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James Madison: Politics
How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?
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James Madison: Politics
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
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James Madison: Politics
[I]t is the reason alone, of the public, that ought to control and regulate the government.
(Federalist No. 49, 1788)
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James Madison: Politics
What is to be the consequence, in case the Congress shall misconstrue ... the Constitution and exercise powers not warranted by its true meaning, I answer the same as if they should misconstrue or enlarge any other power vested in them ... a remedy must be obtained from the people, who can by the elections of more faithful representatives, annul the acts of the usurpers.
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James Madison: Politics
There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
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H. L. Mencken: Politics
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins.
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Lewis Mumford: Politics
The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion.
(1972)
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William A. Niskanen: Politics
Our government has become too responsive to trivial or ephemeral concerns, often at the expense of more important concerns or an erosion of our liberty, and it has made policy priorities more dependent on where TV journalists happen to point their cameras.... As a nation we have lost our sense of tragedy, a recognition that bad things happen to good people. A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident, risks an even larger loss of life and liberty.
(For a Less Responsive Government - Cato Policy Report, 1996)
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Michael Novak: Politics
Our political institutions work remarkably well. They are designed to clang against each other. The noise is democracy at work.
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Robert Orben: Politics
Washington is a place where politicians don't know which way is up and taxes don't know which way is down.
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George Pataki: Politics
When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves.
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Wendell Phillips: Politics
To hear some men talk of the government, you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation, and kept the planets in their places.
(Orations, Speeches, Lectures, and Letters)
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
The first amendment was not written to protect people and their laws from religious values, it was written to protect those values from government tyranny.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual. And let me offer lesson No. 1 about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do."
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
I've never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a 'fat cat' and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a 'public-spirited philanthropist'.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
It doesn't do good to open doors for someone who doesn't have the price to get in. If he has the price, he may not need the laws. There is no law saying the Negro has to live in Harlem or Watts.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home by Christmas.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
To sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
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President Ronald Reagan: Politics
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.
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Wilhelm Reich: Politics
The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality, but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.
(The Mass Psychology of Fascism)
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James Reston: Politics
This is the devilish thing about foreign affairs: they are foreign and will not always conform to our whim.
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Felix G. Rohatyn: Politics
Democracy cannot flourish half rich and half poor, any more than it can flourish half free and half slave.
(New York Times, 3 June 1987)
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President Theodore Roosevelt: Politics
The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
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Richard Rumbold: Politics
I never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.
(1685)
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Erick Schonfeld: Politics
Rules need to be judged not only by what they are designed to accomplish or protect against, but also by the hidden costs they end up imposing on everyone who follows them.
(TechCrunch.com)
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George Bernard Shaw: Politics
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
(Man and Superman, "Maxims: Education," 1905)
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Ben Stein: Politics
Fathom the hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured... but not everyone must prove they are a citizen.
(Ben Stein (Unverified))
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Jonathan Swift: Politics
For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
(The Drapier's Letter)
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Norman Mattoon Thomas: Politics
The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism,’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.
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Karl von Clausewitz: Politics
War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.
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Nicolas Walter: Politics
Many people say that government is necessary because some men cannot be trusted to look after themselves, but anarchists say that government is harmful because no men can be trusted to look after anyone else.
(About Anarchism)
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President George Washington: Politics
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.
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President George Washington: Politics
To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.
(Letter to John Augustin Washington, 1776)
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John Wayne: Politics
I do not want the government to take away my human dignity and insure me anything more than a normal security. I don`t want handouts.
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John Wayne: Politics
I don`t think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare. I`d like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.
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Noah Webster: Politics
[I]f the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted.
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William Allen White: Politics
Democracy is an experiment, and the right of the majority to rule is no more inherent than the right of the minority to rule; and unless the majority represents sane, righteous, unselfish public sentiment, it has no inherent right.
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Lt Col Ret R. J. Wiedemann: Politics
Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end
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George Will: Politics
If you want to understand your government, don't begin by reading the Constitution. (It conveys precious little of the flavor of today's statecraft.) Instead, read selected portions of the Washington telephone directory containing listings for all the organizations with titles beginning with the word National.
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James Wilson: Politics
Government, in my humble opinion, should be formed to secure and to enlarge the exercise of the natural rights of its members; and every government, which has not this in view, as its principal object, is not a government of the legitimate kind.
(Lectures on Law, 1791)
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President Woodrow Wilson: Politics
The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.
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Fred Woodworth: Politics
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.
(The Match!, No. 79)
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Fred Woodworth: Politics
If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also.
(The Match!, No 79)
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