Quotes About Governments

#1. The most tyrannical of governments are those which make crimes of opinions, for everyone has an inalienable right to his thoughts.

Baruch Spinoza

#2. Who tries? You try, your dad tries, average people try. And for their attempts at goodness, average people are mugged by strangers, molested by predatory uncles, massacred by their own governments.

Nicole Peeler

#3. We are vulnerable in the military and in our governments, but I think we're most vulnerable to cyber attacks commercially. This challenge is going to significantly increase. It's not going to go away.

Michael Mullen

#4. Over the years, online, we've laid down a huge amount of information and data, and we irrigate it with networks and connectivity, and it's been worked and tilled by unpaid workers and governments.

David McCandless

#5. By the age of 24, I found myself convicted in prison in Egypt, being blacklisted from three countries in the world for attempting to overthrow their governments, being subjected to torture in Egyptian jails, and sentenced to five years as a prisoner of conscience.

Maajid Nawaz

#6. Governments, political parties, pressure groups, and the bureaucrats of the educational hierarchy think they can avoid the inevitable consequences of unsuitable measures by boycotting and silencing the independent economists. But truth persists and works, even if nobody is left to utter it.

Ludwig Von Mises

#7. Governments don't protect people, people protect governments."
"Order is organic, it can't just be ordered up."
"The more complexity, the more unpredictability and therefore the more uncontrollability. You cannot control what you cannot predict.

Lawrence Samuels

#8. Most governments in Latin America have failed to recognize the rights of indigenous people and their right to their own traditional territories.

Bianca Jagger

#9. If we were all responsible for the misdeeds of the governments that represent us, thought Isabel, then the moral burden would be just too great.

Alexander McCall Smith

#10. The problem is not that America does not have energy. The problem is that our government - alone among the governments of the world - will not allow its own people to recover the energy that they possess.

Jim Talent

#11. Dignity, in private men and in governments, has been little else than a stately and stiff perseverance in oppression; and spirit, as it is called, little else than the foam of hard-mouthed insolence.

Walter Savage Landor

#12. The state was made for man, not man for state.

Albert Einstein

#13. All governments needed to remain under suspicion during their time of power including that of the Sisterhood itself. Trust no government! Not even mine!

Frank Herbert

#14. Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

Ronald Reagan

#15. What the new government of Nigeria and other African governments must do, is to start a massive reorientation campaign in the culture of the dignity of labour.

Sunday Adelaja

#16. All governments are in equal measure good and evil. The best ideal is anarchy.

Leo Tolstoy

#17. While the Internet can't be controlled 100 percent, it's possible for governments to filter content and discourage people from organizing.

Rebecca MacKinnon

#18. An hereditary aristocracy ... will change the form of our governments from the best to the worst in the world.

Thomas Jefferson

#19. The history of the last century shows, as we shall see later, that the advice given to governments by bankers, like the advice they gave to industrialists, was consistently good for bankers, but was often disastrous for governments, businessmen, and the people generally.

Carroll Quigley

#20. I do not accept the right of big powers to change governments as and when it affects their interests.

Tariq Ali

#21. It may safely be received as an axiom in our political system, that the state governments will in all possible contingencies afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.

Alexander Hamilton

#22. Few governments in the world, for example, praise human rights more ardently than does the government of France, and few have a worse record of supporting tyrants and killers.

Richard Perle

#23. It is of the highest importance to provide equal access to the labour market. Governments should act to establish equitable employment standards and penalise racial discrimination.

Tariq Ramadan

#24. Traditionally, Africans hate governments. They hate tyranny.

George Ayittey

#25. History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. To keep the peace, we and our allies must be strong enough to convince any potential aggressor that war could bring no benefit, only disaster.

Ronald Reagan

#26. As recently as the 1970s, the idea that the point of life was to get rich and that governments existed to facilitate this would have been ridiculed: not only by capitalism's traditional critics but also by many of its staunchest defenders.

Tony Judt

#27. In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.
Read more at

Leo Tolstoy

#28. Listen, Peaches, trickery is what humans are all about," said the voice of Maurice. "They're so keen on tricking one another all the time that they elect governments to do it for them.

Terry Pratchett

#29. Governments don't control people like they used to.

Noam Chomsky

#30. While I'm optimistic about the direction the world is headed, generally, I think there is a need for constant vigilance and pressure on repressive governments.

Jimmy Wales

#31. Clean water and power is our right as humans on this earth, and for too long, our governments in Africa have failed to provide these things.

William Kamkwamba

#32. The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.

Lord Acton

#33. The large and rising offshore wealth translates to substantial losses in fiscal revenue. By my estimate, the fraud perpetuated through unreported foreign accounts each year costs about $200 billion to governments throughout the world (see fig.

Gabriel Zucman

#34. For example, UNICEF works with governments to change legislation such as in India where a law was passed raising the age of compulsory school completion to keep children in school and away from the workplace for longer.

Carol Bellamy

#35. Institutions are imperfect. Governments surely are. People are.

Chuck Hagel

#36. Laws and regulations are supposed to restrict the kind of surveillance governments do. In fact, the U.S. government is quite restricted in what kind of surveillance they can do on U.S. citizens. The problem is that 96 percent of the planet is not U.S. citizens.

Mikko Hypponen

#37. It really is my opinion that media in general are so bad that we have to question whether the world wouldn't be better off without them altogether. They are so distortive to how the world actually is that the result is.. we see wars, and we see corrupt governments continue on.

Julian Assange

#38. Governments can inflate their way out of debt, but that has consequences, doesn't it?

Kent Conrad

#39. Quite often governments are one way and the people are another.

Henry Rollins

#40. The claim of the State Socialists, however, that this right would not be exercised in matters pertaining to the individual in the more intimate and private relations of his life is not borne out by the history of governments.

Benjamin Tucker

#41. That useful alterations will be suggested by experience, could not but be foreseen ... It moreover equally enables the general and state governments to originate the amendment of errors as they may be pointed out by the experience on one side or on the other.

James Madison

#42. All previous populist movements were demanding things from governments, whereas the Tea Party is saying, 'Give us less, go away.' That's heartening to see.

P. J. O'Rourke

#43. There are many Sheriff Arpaios. People who have taken to local city, county, and state governments across the county the idea that immigrants are the problem. That immigrants are to blame.

Zack De La Rocha

#44. The governments alone are responsible for the spread of the superstitious awe with which the common man looks upon every bit of paper upon which the treasury or agencies which it controls have printed the magical words legal tender.

Ludwig Von Mises

#45. More emphasis was thus thrown upon the local governments than in England.

Albert Bushnell Hart

#46. The "Powers That Be" are not smart enough to engineer Armageddon, but they may yet be stupid enough. If governments are involved in covering up the knowledge of aliens, then they are doing a much better job of it than they seem to do at anything else.

Stephen Hawking

#47. That's what separates out American democracy from dictators and horrible governments across the world and the reason why that works is that we have a president that can consult with congress before making big decisions. That doesn't just make a unilateral decision to go in for military conflict.

Charles R. Chamberlain

#48. It is the responsibility of all of us to remind governments of their commitments to settle disputes by peaceful means and to negotiate in good faith under the UN Charter, and to denounce war agitation particularly by the media.

Alfred-Maurice De Zayas

#49. But governments and officials are not very good shepherds.

Rebecca Solnit

#50. Addressing the moral failings of black people while ignoring the centuries-old failings of their governments amounts to a bait and switch.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

#51. The precondition of success and entry to the top politics is primarily one's will - that is, making one's own decisions, because it means having to leave your home or move your family, quit social networking and build new contacts, [since] central governments are seated in capitals.

Dalia Grybauskaite

#52. America is addicted to oil and increasing amounts of this oil comes from abroad. Some of the nations we depend on for oil have unstable governments or are hostile towards the United States.

George W. Bush

#53. It's a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens.

Donald Trump

#54. In all great changes of established governments, forms ought to give way to substance

James Madison

#55. Governments are run by people. People can be bad.

Jesse Ventura

#56. In Great Britain, governments often change their policies without changing their men. In France, they usually change their men without changing their policy.

Winston Churchill

#57. I don't just denounce suicide bombers. I denounce those governments which use indiscriminate slaughter to advance their foreign policy.

Ken Livingstone

#58. Our superhero foreign policy draws rivers of taxpayer dollars toward the center, empowering Washington at the expense of local governments. It also empowers the president at the expense of Congress in ways that upset the balance that the authors of the Constitution took great pains to design.

Ian Bremmer

#59. The more laws that governments pass, the less individual freedom there is. Any student of history will tell you that. Totalitarian countries ban pretty much everything.

Bill O'Reilly

#60. Everyone sees that this cannot go on. Everything is strained to such a degree that it will certainly break, said Pierre (as those wha examine the actions of any government have always said since governments began).

Leo Tolstoy

#61. Errors in decision-making lead young people to under-save for retirement, doctors to miss tumours, CEOs to make catastrophic investments, governments to engage in needless wars, and parents to irreversibly traumatize their children.

Noreena Hertz

#62. The rewards that will flow from a successful shift to a low carbon economy are high. Neither governments nor business can afford to let these opportunities pass them by

Margaret Beckett

#63. What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty ... Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.

Elbridge Gerry

#64. In a world of asynchronous threats, it is too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you. We need a [verified] name service for people. Governments will demand it.

Eric Schmidt

#65. I play to all people, and I play to people not governments, and I believe strongly that all people are peaceful and would want peace.

Paul McCartney

#66. Microeconomics is the study of how specific choices made by businesses, consumers and governments affect the markets for different goods and services. For example, a microeconomist might examine how price changes affect sales of apples relative to oranges.

Alex Berenson

#67. Governments are necessarily continuing concerns. They have to keep going in good times and in bad. They therefore need a wide margin of safety. If taxes and debt are made all the people can bear when times are good, there will be certain disaster when times are bad.

Calvin Coolidge

#68. Experience declares that man is the only animal which devours his own kind; for I can apply no milder term to the governments of Europe, and to the general prey of the rich on the poor.

Thomas Jefferson

#69. Whenever governments adopt a moral tone - as opposed to an ethical one - you know something is wrong.

John Ralston Saul

#70. Global warming is another big area that we need to get on top of. [And] diseases in Africa, which we're also working on and seeing if we can make a difference on. And there are lots of issues that governments seem to be blind about.

Richard Branson

#71. Freedom is sloppy. But since tyranny's the only guaranteed byproduct of those who insist on a perfect world, freedom will have to do.

Bill Willingham

#72. Governments commit more crimes upon persons and property and contribute more to their insecurity than all [the] criminals put together.

Josiah Warren

#73. I think people respect governments that take decisions and act decisively.

P. Chidambaram

#74. Do you know that there's hardly anyone left of last year's Caucasian governments? I've tried to stop it, but in vain. Yet they can't all be Trotskyites and traitors.

Lavrentiy Beria

#75. Globalisation makes it clear that social responsibility is required not only of governments, but of companies and individuals. All sources must interact in order to reach the MDGs.

Anna Lindh

#76. I cannot perfectly agree to everything he has related. However, there are many things in the commonwealth of Utopia that I rather wish, than hope, to see followed in our governments.

Thomas More

#77. Governments derive their just power from the consent of the governed

Harriet Beecher Stowe

#78. 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

#79. It is during difficult times like this that the true American spirit reveals itself. I am not talking only of the response of local, state, and federal governments, although they will each play an extremely important role in this effort.

Jo Bonner

#80. It would be wonderful if the public sector were always great, or always terrible; or if the private sector were always great, or always terrible. Alas, reality is more complicated than comforting caricatures. Governments fail, and corporations fail.

Jon Meacham

#81. No one forces you to buy a Twinkie. But governments do force you to fight in their wars and pay for their bailouts.

Thomas E. Woods Jr.

#82. During the twentieth century, communist governments killed some 100 million of their own people in peacetime, either by repression or by famine.

Charles Wheelan

#83. In addition to their power over government based on government financing and personal influence, bankers could steer governments in ways they wished them to go by other pressures.

Carroll Quigley

#84. I am very confident that we will be able to convince all the stakeholders - the shareholders, the governments and the employees, that this is in their best interests.

Lakshmi Mittal

#85. At some point the Japanese, Chinese and Saudi buyers of US and European Government bonds will see just what miserable value they offer. Then governments may have to stop all the runaway spending and bailouts and even put up interest rates.

Luke Johnson

#86. Adding an overarching tier of tyrants the EU to European governments has benefited Europeans as a second hangman enhances the health of a condemned man.

Ilana Mercer

#87. In 1984, the Federal Trade Commission released a report that explained why taxis could charge customers exorbitant prices for dismal service. The simple reason, according to the 176-page study: lack of competition in the market. The culprit: local governments.

Marvin Ammori

#88. Once humanity discovers what's behind the mirror of all the ruling class of governments and religions there will be a new beginning of justice called Enlightenment.

Charleston Parker

#89. It requires a public awakening, establishment of political will, resetting of priorities, sacrifice for the future, and an alliance of governments, businesses, and citizens.

Thomas L. Friedman

#90. The time has come, or is about to come, when only large-scale civil disobedience, which should be nonviolent, can save the populations from the universal death which their governments are preparing for them.

Bertrand Russell

#91. My father worked for governments all his life as an engineer and public works director.

Edward Tufte

#92. Our government needs the church, because only those humble enough to admit they're sinners can bring democracy the tolerance it requires to survive

Ronald Reagan

#93. Governments should look at investment in broadband as a national priority on the grounds that having broadband access for virtually everyone creates opportunities for the development of the economy that wouldn't otherwise be available.

Vint Cerf

#94. 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

#95. All governments are corrupt and only thing that varies between them is the level of corruption.

Steven Magee

#96. History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and it's issuance.

James Madison

#97. 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

#98. Governments must be conformable to the nature of the governed; governments are even a result of that nature.

Giambattista Vico

#99. The Convention probably foresaw what it has been a principal aim of these papers to inculcate that the danger which most threatens our political welfare is, that the state governments will finally sap the foundations of the Union.

Alexander Hamilton

#100. Governments are a necessary evil. Just because something is necessary doesn't mean you should pretend that it is a good thing. Governments cannot do good, it is against their nature; it is beyond their ability; so curb them and curb the evil that they do.

Chris Northern