Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.

The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, ‚Gee, isn’t that wonderful?‘

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

A lot of people have a sense-of-entitlement mentality that somebody else ought to do these things for them. People are mad at the government for not getting jobs for them. I don’t understand why it’s the government’s responsibility.

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

If the government ever imposes a tax on books – and I wouldn’t put it past them – I’m in dead trouble.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

So confident am I in the intentions, as well as wisdom, of the government, that I shall always be satisfied that what is not done, either cannot, or ought not to be done.

I don’t write policy for my government.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‚Present‘ or ‚Not guilty.‘

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

Government isn’t that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you’ve got to have commercial companies do it.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

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

The IRS! They’re like the Mafia, they can take anything they want!

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

If I studied all my life, I couldn’t think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of congress.

I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy – the one that’s absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.

When I was president, I announced and I still maintain that I can live with Roe v. Wade. I did everything I possibly could as president under that ruling, which I don’t think ought to be changed, to minimize the need for abortions. I think every abortion is a result of a horrible series of errors on the part of people involved.

I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

We are a forward-looking people, and we must have a forward-looking government.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

I do have a political agenda. It’s to have as few regulations as possible.

Government can provide opportunity. But opportunity means nothing unless people are prepared to seize it.

It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a Free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even of his personal services to the defense of it.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

Suspicion is far more to be wrong than right; more often unjust than just. It is no friend to virtue, and always an enemy to happiness.