Top 100 Good Government Quotes
#1. In times of political confusion, and under an arbitrary government, many will prefer to keep their capital inactive, concealed, and unproductive, either of profit or gratification, rather than run the risk of its display. This latter evil is never felt under a good government.
Jean-Baptiste Say
#2. It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers but by their distribution that good government is effected.
Thomas Jefferson
#3. Good government is no substitute for self-government.
Mahatma Gandhi
#4. Popular government has not yet been proved to guarantee, always and everywhere, good government.
Walter Lippmann
#6. Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.
Elias Boudinot
#8. There is no such thing as a good government. There never was. There can't be.
Emma Goldman
#10. When these political action committees give money, they expect something in return other than good government.
Bob Dole
#11. I think any good government will target on the finishing date, that is, the polling day and make sure that their strategy is strong and in place to get them successfully re-elected.
Alexander Downer
#12. The only good government ... Is a bad one in a hell of a fright.
Joyce Cary
#13. It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption.
Jean-Baptiste Say
#14. Everything that has happened in my life is because of good government and because the United States of America was the greatest nation on the face of the earth.
Andrew Young
#15. As I get older ... I become more convinced that good government is not a substitute for self-government.
Dwight Morrow
#17. Good Government is not intrusive the people are hardly aware of it; the next best is felt yet loved; then comes that which is known and feared; the worst government is hated.
Laozi
#18. Every good government is made up of good families. The unit of good government is the family, and anything that tends to destroy the family is perfectly devilish and infamous.
Robert Green Ingersoll
#19. Bad government, like good government, is a spiritual thing. Even the tyrant never rules by force alone; but mostly by fairy tales. And so it is with the modern tyrant,
G.K. Chesterton
#20. Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.
Lincoln Steffens
#21. A good government had to guide its people, sometimes gently, sometimes strictly, just as parents did. It could allow certain freedoms, but in a style that suited the country.
Amy Tan
#22. I understand that government should live within its means, value the money it holds in trust from you the taxpayer, avoid waste and, above all else, observe the first maxim of good government: namely, do no avoidable harm.
Tony Abbott
#23. A man who doesn't detest a bad government is a fool. And if there were such a thing as a good government in earth, it would be a great joy to serve it.
Ursula K. Le Guin
#25. Religion, morality, and knowledge are necessary for good government ... Therefore schools and the means of educating the people should always be encouraged.
Thomas Jefferson
#26. To speak against religion (the Christian) is breaking down the bond of good government.
James L. Petigru
#27. No good government but what is republican ... the very definition of a republic is 'an empire of laws, and not of men.'
John Adams
#28. Among the most inestimable of our blessings is that ... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support.
Thomas Jefferson
#29. Thus, those who say they would have right without its correlate, wrong; or good government without its correlate, misrule, do not apprehend the great principles of the universe, nor the nature of all creation.
Zhuangzi
#30. Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter, they are badly fed and badly clothed.
William Cobbett
#31. WASHINGTONIAN, n. A Potomac tribesman who exchanged the privilege of governing himself for the advantage of good government. In justice to him it should be said that he did not want to.
Ambrose Bierce
#32. The nation's non-co-operation is an invitation to the Government to co-operate with it on its own terms, as is every nation's right and every good government's duty.
Mahatma Gandhi
#34. People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.
James Bovard
#35. Excuse me for being greedy, but I want freedom and good government.
David Brin
#36. Good schools, good jobs, good government. These are not unreasonable demands. But sadly, some of our people have already lost heart and have left Hawaii to look for these things elsewhere.
Linda Lingle
#37. Early rising is also essential to the good government of a family. A late breakfast deranges the whole business of the day, and throws a portion of it on the next, which opens the door for confusion to enter.
Mary Randolph
#38. As good government is an empire of laws, how shall your laws be made? In a large society, inhabiting an extensive country, it is impossible that the whole should assemble to make laws. The first necessary step, then, is to depute power from the many to a few of the most wise and good.
John Adams
#39. For domination has nothing whatsoever to do with good government, and power as an end in itself destroys good government.
Robert Payne
#40. I am opposed to term limits because if we did not have seasoned professionals, we would not have the good government that we have.
George Will
#41. It is one thing to be subordinate to the laws, and another [for the Executive] to be dependent on the legislative body. The first comports with, the last violates, the fundamental principles of good government; and, whatever may be the forms of the Constitution, unites all power in the same hands.
Alexander Hamilton
#42. If you present good government, then elections look after themselves.
Jay Weatherill
#43. A good government does dirty jobs.
Toba Beta
#44. No good government can ever want more than two things for its support: 1st, Its own excellence; and, 2dly, a people sufficiently instructed, to be aware of that excellence. Every other pretended support, must ultimately tend to its subversion, by lessening its dependence upon these.
James Mill
#45. Those of you who come in with me now will receive a big piece of the pie. Those of you who delay, and commit yourselves later, will receive a smaller piece of pie. Those of you who don't come in at all will receive - Good Government!
Huey Long
#46. As the prosperity of the nation and the height of wage rates depend on a continual increase in the capital invested in its plants, mines and farms, it is one of the foremost tasks of good government to remove all obstacles that hinder the accumulation and investment of new capital.
Ludwig Von Mises
#47. The worst enemy of good government is not our ignorant foreign voter, but our educated domestic railroad president, our prominent business man, our leading lawyer.
John Jay Chapman
#48. They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today.
Terry Pratchett
#49. The responsibility for good government lies not just with governments themselves but also with every other part of the system they operate in, including media, non-governmental organisations and the public.
Geoff Mulgan
#50. I mean those people who are interested in good government will certainly contribute in order to make certain there's some counter-balance to those whose interests in good government is less.
Stephen Breyer
#52. That is the trick of good government. To make folk desire to live in such a way that there is no need for its intervention.
Robin Hobb
#53. A good government is one with many information channels, those that give real-time information.
Narendra Modi
#54. Good government should maintain the balance where every individual may have a place if he will take it, where every individual may find safety if he wishes it, where every individual may attain such power as his ability permits, consistent with his assuming the accompanying responsibility.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
#55. I am against all forms of government, including good government.
Edward Abbey
#56. Short-term thinking is the greatest enemy of good government.
Anthony Albanese
#57. All prejudices are equally fatal to good government.
Anthony Eden
#58. If our political leaders are to be always a lot of political merchants, they will supply any demand we may create. All we have to do is to establish a steady demand for good government.
Lincoln Steffens
#59. Good government is that which delivers the citizen from being done out of his life and property too arbitrarily and violently-one that relieves him sufficiently from the barbaric business of guarding them to enable him to engage in gentler, more dignified, and more agreeable undertakings ...
H.L. Mencken
#61. For some in Washington, it's become sport to pick on the federal workforce. I think they do so unjustly. The very foundation of a stable America is having a government that functions well. Many countries have dysfunctional governments, because they don't have a good government workforce.
Ken Salazar
#62. All forms of government are pernicious, including good government.
Edward Abbey
#63. All that a good government aims at ... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities.
James F. Cooper
#64. All good government must begin at home. It is useless to make good laws for bad people; what is wanted is this, to subdue the tyranny of the human heart.
Hugh Reginald Haweis
#65. We haven't usually had to face the extreme questions about liberty and order because we're not a nation of extremists. We love freedom and good government both.
David Ignatius
#66. Jealousy, and local policy mix too much in all our public councils for the good government of the Union. In a words, the confederation appears to me to be little more than a shadow without the substance ...
George Washington
#67. A good government may, indeed, redress the grievances of an injured people; but a strong people can alone build up a great nation.
Thomas Francis Meagher
#68. Our domestic affections are the most salutary basis of all good government.
Benjamin Disraeli
#69. There is good government when those who are near are made happy, and when those who are afar are attracted.
Confucius
#70. The community suffers nothing very terrible if its cobblers are bad and become degenerate and pretentious; but if the Guardians of its laws and constitution, who alone have the opportunity to bring it good government and prosperity, become a mere sham, then clearly it is completely ruined.
Plato
#71. One of these days the people of Louisiana are going to get good government - and they aren't going to like it.
Huey Long
#72. History has tried hard to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of the government couldn't be wise.
Mark Twain
#73. If there's any literary ability in a feller, getting fired out of a good government job will bring it out.
Kin Hubbard
#74. A good Government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of Government, which is the happiness of the People; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.
James Madison
#75. Part of our struggle is to make the international community understand that we are a poor country not because there is an insufficiency of resources and investment, but because we are deprived of the basic institutions and practices that make for good government.
Aung San Suu Kyi
#77. Among the weeds choking out growth and good government are the hundreds of boards, commissions, and advisory committees that have sprouted over the years. They devour time, money, and energy far beyond any real contribution they make.
Mitch Daniels
#78. Good government only happens when the people working in it do their jobs, and do them well.
Matthew Lesko
#79. We want a good government that works. Let us rise above caste divisions and nepotism and pledge to elect a government that is development oriented. Delhi needs a stable government and a strong government
Narendra Modi
#80. Look, good government doesn't look for excuses, good government gets on with the job.
Tony Abbott
#81. In a democratic country everything is very simple: If you choose a good government, good things will happen; if you choose a bad government, bad things will happen!
Mehmet Murat Ildan
#82. A single good government is a blessing to the whole earth.
Thomas Jefferson
#83. A good government is one with a duty to help everyone, to maximise his or her potential: Indigenous people, people with disabilities, and our forgotten families.We will not leave anyone behind.
Warren Mundine
#86. The effect of a good government is to make life more valuable; of a bad one, to make it less valuable.
Henry David Thoreau
#87. I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.
Barack Obama
#88. A good government remains the greatest of human blessings and no nation has ever enjoyed it.
Dean Inge
#89. Gospel bestows all good things spiritual: forgiveness of sins, true righteousness, peace of conscience, everlasting life; and all good things temporal: good judgment, good government and peace.
Martin Luther
#90. I believe to go along to get along is unpatriotic. I believe that agreeing with your government on everything they do is unpatriotic. I believe a patriot stands up and holds your government's feet to the fire. Because if you do that, you will get good government.
Jesse Ventura
#91. No one more sincerely wishes the spread of information among mankind than I do, and none has greater confidence in it's effect towards supporting free & good government.
Thomas Jefferson
#92. Impressed with a conviction that the due administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good Government, I have considered the first arrangement of the Judicial department as essential to the happiness of our Country, and to the stability of its political system.
George Washington
#93. Life under a good government is rarely dramatic; life under a bad government is always so.
Oscar Wilde
#94. Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.
Aristotle.
#95. The care of human life and happiness, and their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of a good government.
Thomas Jefferson
#96. People know something has gone terribly wrong with our government and it has gotten so far off track. But people also know that there is nothing wrong in America that a good old-fashioned election can't fix.
Sarah Palin
#97. For decades now, the Democrats have had a good gig buying the votes of government workers with outrageous salaries, benefits and work rules - and then sticking productive earners with the bill. But, now, we're out of money.
Ann Coulter
#98. A good model of how to 'work with the enemy' internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet.
Alice Walker
#99. All governments are in equal measure good and evil. The best ideal is anarchy.
Leo Tolstoy
#100. We know that this nation entered into solemn treaties [with Indian tribes] which have been continuously violated for more than 250 years. It's a disgrace. It's an outrage. We must do everything in our power to keep those treaties. Otherwise, the word of the United States government is no good.
John McCain
