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

The government argues that First Amendment rights are outweighed by the need to prosecute those who transmit classified information and documents.

We have the best government that money can buy.

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, Thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought is great and swift and free.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

Many financial advisors recommend that you diversify for your own protection. What they fail to tell you is that it is also for their protection. Since most financial advisors cannot tell you exactly which stock or mutual fund is a great investment, they tell you to buy a bunch of them.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I’m angry about bankers. About the government.

God’s angels often protect his servants from potential enemies.

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.

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

The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.

I know I got angels watchin me from the other side.

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.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

The economy’s always been the engine for our national security.

It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.

The 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.

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don’t get wet you can keep.

I don’t write policy for my government.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

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.

How can we help President Obama?

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

Democracy passes into despotism.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

It is a way to take people’s wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.

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

We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.

I’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.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

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.

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

Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

That our government should have been maintained in its original form from its establishment until now is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period, it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now, it is understood to be a successful one.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators.

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

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.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion.

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‚A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.‘

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

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Antitrust is the way that the government promotes markets when there are market failures. It has nothing to do with the idea of free information.

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

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.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.