Famous Quotes:  Government
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   The quotations below are compiled by David Burns for the use of students and others interested in exploring these topics further.  The inclusion of a quote does not necessarily imply that Mr. Burns agrees with its point of view.

Government

   All government - indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act - is founded on compromise and barter.
    Edmund Burke, English political leader, Second Speech on Conciliation with America, 1775.

   What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
   James Madison, in The Federalist (#51), 1788
   Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
   Lord Acton, English scholar, 1887.

   History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful government, but out of weak and helpless ones.  If by democratic methods people get a government strong enough to protect them from fear and starvation, their democracy succeeds; but if they do not, they grow impatient.  Therefore, the only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government.
   President Franklin Roosevelt, Fireside Chat, 1938.
 Government

  Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.
   Thomas Paine, American writer, in Common Sense, 1776.

   There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics:  as government expands, liberty contracts.
   President Ronald Reagan, Farewell Address, 1989.

   Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.
   Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice, in Olmstead v. United States, 1928.








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Copyright 2006, 2012 by David A. Burns.  All rights reserved.  No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the copyright holder.