“The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object.”
Thomas Jefferson
Will Of The PeopleDemocracy
Government Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · GOVERNMENT
Government Quotes
Read the best government quotes on democracy, law, leadership and liberty from Madison, Jefferson, Mencius, Kautilya, Gandhi, Ambedkar, Plato and more.
“The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”
James Madison
Separation Of PowersTyranny
“Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.”
Alexander Hamilton
LeadershipGood Government
“The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilised community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”
John Stuart Mill
LibertyPower
“To govern means to rectify. If you lead on the people with correctness, who will dare not to be correct?”
Confucius
LeadershipExample
“The people suffer from famine because of the multitude of taxes consumed by their superiors.”
Lao Tzu
TaxesFairness
“The people turn to a benevolent rule as water flows downwards.”
Mencius
KindnessLeadership
“Who daily asks not how his realm doth fare, and acts not right, his realm will perish day by day.”
Thiruvalluvar
AccountabilityLeadership
“There is no better work than promoting the welfare of the whole world.”
Emperor Ashoka
Public WelfareService
“However good a Constitution may be, it is sure to turn out bad because those who are called to work it happen to be a bad lot. However bad a Constitution may be, it may turn out to be good if those who are called to work it happen to be a good lot.”
B. R. Ambedkar
ConstitutionCharacter
“At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom.”
Jawaharlal Nehru
IndiaIndependence
“The Constitution is not a mere lawyers' document; it is a vehicle of life, and its spirit is always the spirit of age.”
B. R. Ambedkar
ConstitutionProgress
“The administration of justice is the firmest pillar of government.”
George Washington
JusticeGood Government
“Let reverence for the laws become the political religion of the nation.”
Abraham Lincoln
Rule Of LawNation
“That government is the strongest of which every man feels himself a part.”
Thomas Jefferson
ParticipationDemocracy
“A popular Government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps both.”
James Madison
InformationDemocracy
“The vigour of government is essential to the security of liberty.”
Alexander Hamilton
Strong GovernmentLiberty
“A body of men, holding themselves accountable to nobody, ought not to be trusted by any body.”
Thomas Paine
AccountabilityTrust
“The people's government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.”
Daniel Webster
DemocracyPeople
“Public office is a public trust.”
Grover Cleveland
Public ServiceShort Quotes
“Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Foreign PolicyStrength
“No man is above the law and no man is below it.”
Theodore Roosevelt
Rule Of LawEquality
“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”
Calvin Coolidge
TaxesLimited Government
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Social WelfareProgress
“In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Ronald Reagan
Limited GovernmentPolitics