The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

Governments don’t control people like they used to.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

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

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

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.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf.

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.

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

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

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

Democracy passes into despotism.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

My government is working for the common man. Our priority is the poor of the country. We want good governance through a dynamic and seamless government.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

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

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

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

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

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

It’s very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

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

That government is best which governs least.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

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

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

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.

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

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

In 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.

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

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.

No people is wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

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

It wasn’t until we got our first office in Palo Alto where things became more like a company. We never went into this wanting to build a company.

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.

Politicians love regulating. That’s part of the whole power structure.

That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

I don’t write policy for my government.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples‘ money.

A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.

If you believe that tax policy has nothing to do with the economy, then you’re pretty much like a rock, only dumber.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.