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| The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion. ~ Lewis Mumford, in Anne Chisholm, |
| It might be more worthwhile if we stopped wringing our hands and started ringing our congressmen. ~ Author Unknown |
| The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. ~ Winston Churchill |
| If people behaved like governments, you’d call the cops. ~ Kelvin Throop |
| We are imperfect. We cannot expect perfect government. ~ William Howard Taft |
| Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor. ~ James Russell Lowell |
| Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. ~ George Bernard Shaw, |
| The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy. ~ Woodrow Wilson |
| In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery? ~ St. Augustine |
| Democracy: The state of affairs in which you consent to having your pocket picked, and elect the best man to do it. ~ Benjamin Lichtenberg |
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| Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ~ P.J. O’Rourke |
| If all the economists were laid end to end, they’d never reach a conclusion. ~ George Bernard Shaw |
| No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. ~ Abraham Lincoln |
| Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true. ~ Polish Proverb |
| The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them. ~ Karl Marx |
| Governments should not possess instruments of coercion and violence denied to their citizens. ~ Edgar A. Suter |
| Our government… teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. ~ Louis Brandeis |
| A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away. ~ Barry Goldwater |
| Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except all those others that have been tried from time to time. ~ Winston Churchill |
| Democracy is a government where you can say what you think even if you don’t think. ~ Author Unknown |
| The cure for capitalism’s failing would require that a government would have to rise above the interests of one class alone. ~ Robert L. Heilbroner |
| Majority rule only works if you’re also considering individual rights. Because you can’t have five wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for supper. ~ Larry Flynt |
| Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb. ~ Benjamin Franklin |
| Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it. ~ Richard Lamm |
| Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate? ~ Will Rogers |
| Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln. ~ Will Rogers |
| If you want to understand your government, don’t begin by reading the Constitution. (It conveys precious little of the flavor of today’s statecraft.) Instead, read selected portions of the Washington telephone directory containing listings for all the organizations with titles beginning with the word National. ~ George Will |
| This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. ~ Will Rogers |
| Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens – and then everybody disagrees. ~ Boris Marshalov |
| Our political institutions work remarkably well. They are designed to clang against each other. The noise is democracy at work. ~ Michael Novak |