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The budget should be balanced; the treasury refilled; public debt should be reduced; the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled; and assistance to foreign lands should be limited, lest the State become bankrupt. The people should be forced to work and not depend on Government for assistance. – Marcus Tullius Cicero
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The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. – Tacitus
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The word government is from the Greek word, which means ‘to steer’. The job of government is to steer, not to row the boat. Delivering services is rowing and government is not very good at rowing. – E. S. Savas
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One law for lion and ox is oppression. – William Blake
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A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves. – Anonymous
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What makes equality such a difficult business is that we only want it with our superiors. – Henry Becque
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Power worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem invincible. – George Orwell
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There is not enough jails, not enough policemen, not enough courts to enforce a law not supported by the people. – Hubert Humphrey
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Machiavelli’s Prince has lasted as long as it has, not because it’s a cynical work about power, but because it’s an instructional guide for those who do not accept fatalism and determinism and need all the cunning at their disposal to overcome it. – Robert Kaplan
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Geography and history have to be overcome, but they can never be denied. – Robert Kaplan
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Because of our Congressional committee system, our government is closer to a gerontocracy than a democracy. – Charles Frankel
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The art of government is the organization of idolatry. – George Bernard Shaw
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It would be desirable if every Government, when it comes to power, should have its old speeches burnt. – Viscount Snowden
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An atomic energy plant can slip through parliament easily. A rug in a mayor’s office – an issue everyone can understand – can tie up a municipal council for ages. The risk is asymmetric. In government, what gets you in a hassle is seldom the huge decisions that were clearly wrong, it’s the little things that that were clearly trivial by comparison. – Anonymous
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Business and government administration are alike in all unimportant respects. – Wallace Sayre
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It’s a billion here and a billion there; the first thing you know it adds up to real money. – Senator Everett Dirksen
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A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them. – P. J. O’Rourke
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Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can’t have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. – Larry Flynt
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Congress, the press, and the bureaucracy too often focus on how much money or effort is spent, rather than whether the money or effort actually achieves the announced goal. – Donald Rumsfeld
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No wonder Americans hate politics when, year in and year out, they hear politicians make promises that won’t come true because they don’t even mean them – campaign fantasies that win elections but don’t get nations moving again. – Bill Clinton
