After this week and all the talk about the Government of the United States of America living quite a bit less up to its expectations on the topics of Posse Comitatus and other issues less important, but of just as much concern, as regards the direction of our current Administration, that of recent others and whatever is yet to come, I thought that a few quotes on government might be good. We may have the greatest experiment in democracy ever conceived, but as you will see below, that can all be lost in the twinkling of an eye, if the citizenry are not vigilant and outspoken.
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that it may become probable by supernatural interference! The Almighty has no attribute which can take side with us in such a contest.
Thomas Jefferson
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.
Thomas Jefferson
Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.
Thomas Jefferson
I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer, just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals . . . The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.
Ronald Reagan
It will be found an unjust and unwise jealousy to deprive a man of his natural liberty upon the supposition he may abuse it.
George Washington
Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.
George Washington
Some day, following the example of the United States of America, there will be a United States of Europe.
George Washington
The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference - they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.
George Washington
Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
John Adams
The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
John Adams
When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
John Adams
Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security.
Benjamin Franklin
Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.
Benjamin Franklin
Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.
Benjamin Franklin
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.
Benjamin Franklin
Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.
Albert Einstein
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert Einstein
Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
George Bernard Shaw
If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.
Henry David Thoreau
It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government. But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer. Neither is resignation. Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.
Elie Wiesel
If we get a government that reflects more of what this country is really about, we can turn the century -- and the economy -- around.
Bella Abzug
To put it in a few words, the true malice of man appears only in the state and in the church, as institutions of gathering together, of recapitulation, of totalization.
Paul Ricoeur
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
Edward R. Murrow
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