It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.
Noam ChomskyYou can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.
Gilbert K. ChestertonIn the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Dwight D. EisenhowerWe did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.
Lyndon B. JohnsonThe people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.
Abraham LincolnThe best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.
Ronald ReaganAll impeachments, I guess, are political.
John KennedyI won’t eat anything green.
Kurt CobainHyperinflation can take virtually your entire life’s savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all.
Thomas SowellAncient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?
Will RogersPeople forget… that we structured it so that the government, or the people, would be repaid with a really good rate of return. And as it turns out, that aspect of TARP, that’s what happened.
George W. BushNo group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.
Franklin D. RooseveltAll government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.
Edmund BurkeWhen 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.
Jimmy CarterHe who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.
ConfuciusPresident Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he’s a liar.
Colin PowellThis country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.
Will RogersI found that the corridors of power in Delhi were littered with lobbies of various kinds.
Narendra ModiWe are a forward-looking people, and we must have a forward-looking government.
Arnold SchwarzeneggerTokyo would probably be the foreign city if I had to eat one city’s food for the rest of my life, every day. It would have to be Tokyo, and I think the majority of chefs you ask that question would answer the same way.
Anthony BourdainUnderstand, when you eat meat, that something did die. You have an obligation to value it – not just the sirloin but also all those wonderful tough little bits.
Anthony BourdainIt sure is hell to be president.
Harry S. TrumanIt is not possible to eat me without insisting that I sing praises of my devourer?
Fyodor DostoevskyWhen I came to Delhi and noticed an insider view, I felt what it was, and I was surprised to see it. It seemed as if dozens of separate governments are running at the same time in one main government. It appeared that everyone has its own fiefdom.
Narendra ModiAs a tactic, violence is absurd. No one can compete with the Government in violence, and the resort to violence, which will surely fail, will simply frighten and alienate some who can be reached, and will further encourage the ideologists and administrators of forceful repression.
Noam ChomskyDemocracy is the road to socialism.
Karl MarxThe diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
James MadisonI long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.
Helen KellerOver grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
George WashingtonWhat’s important for my daughter to know is that… if you are fortunate to have opportunity, it is your duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well.
Kamala HarrisI would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.
Clint EastwoodClothes if they are not well cut, you can kill nobody. A building poorly built can kill people. It’s a much more difficult work. I would not compare myself with that.
Karl LagerfeldI think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.
Alice WalkerDemocracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.
PlatoI try to speak plainly so that my constituents who don’t follow the nuances of government like I do, because they’re too busy earning a real living, can understand the issues before me. None of this stuff is brain surgery.
John KennedyDemocracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn’t anticipate.
Hunter S. ThompsonDinner was made for eating, not for talking.
William Makepeace ThackerayWe all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn’t come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn’t resurging. It didn’t work out.
Colin PowellAnd what, Socrates, is the food of the soul? Surely, I said, knowledge is the food of the soul.
PlatoI have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.
Narendra ModiIn my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.
Harry S. TrumanIf more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. TolkienI barely can go shopping for clothes. I find it difficult to walk into stores. The whole thing bores me so much.
Paul AusterPolitics is not a game. It is an earnest business.
Winston ChurchillI am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.
Napoleon BonaparteThe Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, in Christ’s name, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them.
Pope FrancisI’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.
George CarlinI’m going to be a vice president very much like George Bush was. He proved to be a very effective vice president, perhaps the most effective we’ve had in a couple of hundred years.
Dan QuayleWe are all the President’s men.
Henry KissingerThe Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.
John KennedyThe republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.
Thomas JeffersonPolicy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.
Jim MattisThe government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.
A. P. J. Abdul KalamDemocracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.
AristotleWe 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.
Barack ObamaThe question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.
Jeff BezosIt’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.
Will RogersToday, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.
Ronald ReaganAny government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.
George W. BushAs a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe.
Kamala Harris