Famous Quotes

"The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries."

John Adams on Government

More quotes about Government

• "A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities."

  Thomas Jefferson on Government

• "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

  Winston Churchill on Government

• "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

  Thomas Jefferson on Government

• "Government is not reason it is not eloquent it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

  George Washington on Government

• "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil in its worst state, an intolerable one."

  Thomas Paine on Government

More quotes by John Adams

• "Old minds are like old horses you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order."

• "I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth."

• "Fear is the foundation of most governments."

• "Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people."

• "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."