Government Work Quotes

#1. Shutting down the government is not how you make government work.

George Clooney

#2. I was elected to come to an incredibly dysfunctional capital and make the government work better, and that's what I'm doing.

Andrew Cuomo

#3. If you are really interested in making government work, you should have the experience of working in government.

Jennifer Pahlka

#4. If everyone has to be a watchdog in order to make government work, then the foxes will also volunteer to serve.

William Greider

#5. It's time to make our government work for all of us ... and not just the 1%.

Bernie Sanders

#6. The question nowadays is not what makes government work. The question is how do we make it stop.

P. J. O'Rourke

#7. Montanans elected me to the Senate to do away with shady backroom deals and to make government work better.

Jon Tester

#8. Government, possessing the power to create and issue currency and credit as money and enjoying the right to withdraw both currency and credit from circulation by taxation and otherwise, need not and should not borrow capital at interest as a means of financing government work and public enterprises.

Abraham Lincoln

#9. One benefit of government work? Frequent flyer miles. Seriously, I get bumped up about every flight. Still not as nice as the director's private jet though...

Nathan Edmondson

#10. 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

#11. Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It's the system that functions in the pinches that survive

John F. Kennedy

#12. 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

#13. Simon was still trying to work out how Shadowhunter government and also Shadowhunter family trees worked. They all seemed to be related to each other and it was very disturbing.

Cassandra Clare

#14. I understand how bureaucracies work. And that's important because our government has become a vast, huge, bloated, corrupt bureaucracy.

Carly Fiorina

#15. The role of government is to steer us in the right direction, not do all the work for us.

Joe Lhota

#16. We need to work to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the kind of health care choices that the American people want. That doesn't include government-run health care.

Marsha Blackburn

#17. Everybody in America has been dependent on the government at some time. We owe everybody in America the right to vote and access to capital. What I say is, let's make America work, let's make democracy and free enterprise work for everybody.

Andrew Young

#18. Americans for Tax Reform is a national taxpayer organization dedicated to opposing any and all tax increases. We work at the national, state and local level for lower taxes, less government spending and limited government.

Grover Norquist

#19. So often, we leave the selfless side of ourselves for nights and weekends, for our charity work. It is our duty to inject that into our day-to-day business, into the work that we do, to improve corporations, to improve civil society, and to improve government.

Leila Janah

#20. While admirers of capitalism, we also to a certain extent believe it has limitations that require government intervention in markets to make them work.

Janet Yellen

#21. The key to making the inspections work is the Iraqi government making the crucial decision that because of the international pressure Iraq has to disarm itself.

Douglas Feith

#22. I don't believe any person looking for work is fearful of political judgment. Government is a large institution, and if they believe that people are going to get rid of good employees for political reasons, that's absurd.

Jan Brewer

#23. How our government works ... it doesn't.

Lewis Black

#24. As governor, I work in hand in hand with tribal leaders on everything from disaster response to economic development. Tribal governments are important partners to our state government, and I value the good relationships my administration has cultivated with them.

Mary Fallin

#25. The history of American patriotism is figuring out ways that we can work together to move forward and knit together the common government.

Taylor Branch

#26. I think that Minnesota is different because we are proving that tri-partisan government could work, that you do not need to necessarily be a Democrat or a Republican to be successful at governing.

Jesse Ventura

#27. There isn't a day I do not work at my job, or a waking moment when I do not think through a work-related problem. Even my critics cannot begrudge the long hours I put in. Our people deserve a government that works just as hard as they do.

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo

#28. Self-government will not work unless the citizens bear the responsibility to vote in such a way that continues their freedoms and their ability to have free elections, that continues their economic prosperity. They have to vote in a way that does not trade the future for the present. This

Eric Metaxas

#29. As a civil servant in charge of the government's Strategy Unit, I brought in many people from outside government, including academia and science, to work in the unit, dissecting and solving complex problems from GM crops to alcohol, nuclear proliferation to schools reform.

Geoff Mulgan

#30. Whether people are in America or in Africa, people want to work. They want to have purpose. They want to provide for themselves and their families. They don't want handouts. They don't want to be completely dependent on their governments - even though there's usually no opportunity for that anyway.

Scarlett Johansson

#31. WikiLeaks is exposing our government officials for the frauds that they are. They also show us how governments work together to lie to their citizens when they are waging war.

Jesse Ventura

#32. Those advocates who work for world peace by urging a system of world government are called impractical dreamers. Those impractical dreamers are entitled to ask their critics what is so practical about war.

Walter Cronkite

#33. The way things are supposed to work is that we're supposed to know virtually everything about what they [the government] do: that's why they're called public servants. They're supposed to know virtually nothing about what we do: that's why we're called private individuals.

Glenn Greenwald

#34. Do you remember back when you felt you could actually do something to make the world better?" "You're talking to the wrong man. I work for central government, remember? Actually doing something is the mistake we're trained to avoid.

Chris Cleave

#35. To prevent a crippling attack on our nation's critical networks, U.S. companies and the federal government must work together to combat those who wish to do us harm.

Michael McCaul

#36. The Federal Reserve has always recognized the importance of allowing markets to work, and government oversight of financial firms will never be fully effective without the aid of strong market discipline.

Ben Bernanke

#37. If China someday gains a more fair, just, and accountable system of government, it will be due to the hard work and efforts of the Chinese people, not due to the inexorable workings of any particular technology.

Rebecca MacKinnon

#38. Before a community can prosper, the people must believe in their leaders. They must know that at the core of every decision is careful planning, hard work, and unbending integrity rather than partisanship or self-gain. They must trust that the awesome power of government is not being abused.

Linda Lingle

#39. I don't think 'my way or the highway' works, that mentality. And that's what the Tea Party has done: drawn a line in the sand. I'm sorry - that doesn't work in business, that doesn't work in your family, it certainly doesn't work in government and our Congress.

Patrick Murphy

#40. Do not wait for the government to provide solutions to the people when you can be their answer

Sunday Adelaja

#41. I hate big government, but I really hate a government that doesn't work. So when 'they say we either have to raise taxes or cut core services,' it's actually a 'false choice.'

Scott Walker

#42. My last divorce was in '68. What made it come to a head was a promise. See, I had promised her that the next year I wouldn't work as much. But then I got in trouble with the IRS, and I had to continue working just as much to pay the government. So she said I lied, which is something I never did.

B.B. King

#43. Ronald Reagan came from show business. His idea of how the government should help the homeless was like your agent. "We'll try to get you work. But don't bug us about it."

Bill Maher

#44. The difficulty for the Government is there's this ideological straitjacket of the market will provide, let the market rip and everything will work out ... It's back to trickle-down economics, which, it's plain to see, have not delivered.

Frances O'Grady

#45. You can expect to find these four priorities - education, economic vitality, efficiency in government and the protection of families - woven into my decisions as Governor. They will serve as my compass as I work with you to chart a future course for our state.

Dave Heineman

#46. We are entering an era in which national government, instead of directing, enables powerful regional and local initiatives to work, where Britain becomes as it should be - a Britain of nations and regions

Gordon Brown

#47. I think the American public has gone from really almost white-hot anger in 2010 to an anxiety knowing their government needs to work.

Steny Hoyer

#48. Some people think African states cannot be trusted with the cookie jar. But there are absolutely good NGOs who have this feeling of human solidarity and who also recognize that their work can only be supplementary to the government.

Meles Zenawi

#49. The upbeat DHS report was some kind of high-water mark for government gall - a tough record to beat. After sitting back and watching the Cabal do all the work, and nearly succeed, Uncle Sam finally found a role for himself: proclaim victory and then stick a flag in it!

Mark Bowden

#50. Liberals have shifted government into a position of being neutral between right and wrong. By concentrating power in government institutions, liberals chisel at the three pillars of society: the family unit, work ethic and faith. That's not good for America.

James G. Watt

#51. [M]ore Americans work for federal, state or local government than work in any form of manufacturing. We crossed that Rubicon about 10 years ago.

Ann Coulter

#52. The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men the opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.

William Ellery Channing

#53. The Cuban Revolutionary Government has been generous and very considerate to me and my family. I lived in Santa Clara for a few months because I wanted to work in the countryside and get to know the country better.

Huey Newton

#54. If we cannot count on ourselves to do the right thing how can we count on anyone or anything else? Self-government won't work without self-discipline.

Paul Harvey

#55. If the government regulates against use of drones or stem cells or artificial intelligence, all that means is that the work and the research leave the borders of that country and go someplace else.

Peter Diamandis

#56. To pay out millions upon millions of dollars in bonuses for incomplete work, poor performance, and unacceptable products is the height of government waste and mismanagement.

Jim Gibbons

#57. Some government workers are dedicated and work hard, but most of them are just waiting to retire.

Wanda Sykes

#58. As our boys and men are all expecting to be Presidents, so our girls and women must all hold themselves in readiness to preside inthe White House; and in no city in the world can honest industry be more at a discount than in this capital of the government of the people.

Jane Swisshelm

#59. No one in government should ever think that the citizens they work for can't or won't scrutinize their actions.

Roy Barnes

#60. It's not what you do, but what you appear to do.

James Pritchert

#61. Government machinery has been described as a marvelous labor saving device which enables ten men to do the work of one.

John Maynard Keynes

#62. A healthy society rests on three pillars: business, government and civil society, or non-profits. Each has a distinct and important role to play, and all three need to work together synergistically to create the most value for society.

John Mackey

#63. Anyone who is honestly seeking a job and can't find it, deserves the attention of the United States government, and the people.

John F. Kennedy

#64. (Japanese Government believes that if you have a big laboratory with all the latest equipment and good funding it will automatically lead to creativity. It doesn't work that way.

Akio Morita

#65. The federal government has never created one job that is sustainable long term. It creates government project work but not creating real work where people are.

Michael Steele

#66. In poor countries, officials receive explicit bribes; in D.C. they get the sophisticated, implicit, unspoken promise to work for large corporations

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#67. Americans cannot maintain their essential faith in government if there are two Americas, in which the private sector's work subsidizes the disproportionate benefits of this new public sector elite.

Mortimer Zuckerman

#68. Everything we know about human nature and about government tells us that individuals using their own money will achieve far more good for themselves and far more for others than politicians spending money they didn't have to work to earn.

Harry Browne

#69. I need to work outside government, on my own.

Marian Wright Edelman

#70. It is up to all of us - the state, Florida's local communities, and the federal government - to work together on long-term solutions to improve the quality of our water.

Rick Scott

#71. I am a loyal American. I am extremely proud of the work I have done for the United States and for my country and her people. I expect to be treated as such by the representatives of my government and those who report its work.

Steven Hatfill

#72. The big difference in those days was that in England the Government subsidized TV, in America we work on TV so we can subsidize the Government.

Bob Hope

#73. Increased government spending can provide a temporary stimulus to demand and output but in the longer run higher levels of government spending crowd out private investment or require higher taxes that weaken growth by reducing incentives to save, invest, innovate, and work.

Martin Feldstein

#74. The final solution for unemployment is work.

Calvin Coolidge

#75. Every writer's difficult journey is a movement from silence to speech. We must be intensely private and interior in order to find a voice and a vision - and we must bring our work to an outside world where the market, or public outrage, or even government censorship can destroy our voice.

Sara Paretsky

#76. If you have a government that is elected, they need to do the hard work - because if they don't, they won't be around the next time the ballot box is open.

Abdallah II Of Jordan

#77. The implication that women work for pin money and can manage on a worse pension, presumably by relying on husbands, riles. But even more galling for women is that few government ministers seem to even appreciate the value of the work they do.

Frances O'Grady

#78. I would like to have insights into things like government, all those big ideas that you brought up that I simply don't have ideas about. I would like to be able to since so many people discuss them, but I don't want to work at them. I don't think my ambition is that strong in that direction.

Jasper Johns

#79. Government grows despite repeated failures to serve the public well because government's purpose no longer is to serve the public. Government now serves primarily the interests of those who work for the government.

Jack Kelly

#80. A righteous government is of all the most to be wished for,Bearing of blessing and good fortune in the highest.Guided by the law of Truth, supported by dedication and zeal,It blossoms into the Best of Order, a Kingdom of Heaven!To effect this I shall work now and ever more.

Zoroaster

#81. Our nation is too different, too diverse to say that what works in Massachusetts is somehow going to be grabbed by the federal government, usurping the power of states and imposing a one-size-fits-all plan on the nation. That will not work.

Mitt Romney

#82. Our Government is investing in stronger communities by supporting the important work of charities by reducing their administrative burden, encouraging charitable giving and allowing charities to use modern electronic tools.

Kevin Sorenson

#83. The government should now launch an initiative to encourage people to join the social work profession.

Andy Sawford

#84. In India, we now see many highly qualified professionals ready to work in the rural hinterland and in their own towns and cities to tackle development issues directly without depending much on the government.

Jacqueline Novogratz

#85. I've experienced first-hand the wonderful work organizations like J Bar J do for young people in Central Oregon and I am encouraged that the federal government is taking an active role in the Cascade Youth and Family Center.

Greg Walden

#86. As Americans, we don't see the role of government as guaranteeing outcomes, but allowing free men and women to flourish based on their own vision, their hard work and their personal responsibility.

Rick Perry

#87. To make an ox or water buffalo work so hard, it needs to be blinded and uninformed. That's what the government is doing to the masses now.

Lisa See

#88. The true terrorists of our world do not meet at the docks at midnight, or scream "Allahu Akbar" before some violent action. The true terrorists of our world wear 5000 dollar suits and work in the highest positions of finance, government and business.

Peter Joseph

#89. I don't think we should discriminate against an organization or congregation because they're religious, if they're doing good work. But government can't subsidize proselytizing or worship or religious activity. It can't.

Jim Wallis

#90. We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out.

Colin Powell

#91. Someone is going to figure out how to make this work and when they do, all the anti-gambling, over-regulating authoritarian governments will be exposed as emperors without clothes. It might not be obvious that this is even happening at first, since these systems are by definition stealthy affairs.

Calvin Ayre

#92. Cowardice is impotence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge but being afraid to die, he looks to others, maybe to the government of the day, to do the work of defense for him. A coward is less than a man. He does not deserve to be a member of a society of men and women.

Mahatma Gandhi

#93. The message of David Duke, is this, basically: Big government, anti-big government, get out of my pocketbook, cut my taxes, put welfare people back to work. That's a very popular message. The problem is the messenger.

Dan Quayle

#94. We have built as a government something called the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, NCIJTF, where 19 federal agencies sit together and divide up the work. See the threat, see the challenge, divide it up and share information.

James Comey

#95. I work for a Government I despise for ends I think criminal.

John Maynard Keynes

#96. They think the government shows people everything - how to work, study, eat, sleep and that's it. They are afraid of change. They do not understand that if you want to do something, you should do it. You are free, people, free!

Anton Krotov

#97. One thing I began to realize in my travels was that everyone I met who was truly successful - whether in business, in philanthropic work, in human rights, in government, or in raising a family - shared one common trait: they were fanatically passionate about the work they did.

Wes Moore

#98. We carry out our work under the leadership of the government.

Li Shufu

#99. Unlike the Tea Party, who see themselves as the customers of government, people in the Occupy Wall Street movement understand that we are the government. Stated most simply, we are trying to run a 21st-century society on a 13th-century economic operating system. It just doesn't work.

Douglas Rushkoff

#100. Unions have been the best anti-poverty program that actually worked and did not cost the government a dime. But as unions grow smaller- not stronger- our ability to act as an economic mechanism to distribute the gains of our work and raise all workers' wages and benefits up is disappearing.

Andy Stern