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Government: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
*** The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not. C.— JOHN ADAMS — Diary, June 2, 1778.
Charles Francis Adams' Life of Adams. Vol. III. P. 171. Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls. Attributed to ALCÆUS by ARISTIDES- Orations. Vol. II. (Jebb's edition). Austin's trans. States are great engines moving slowly.— BACON — Advancement of Learning. Bk. II.
For where's the State beneath the Firmament, That doth excell the Bees for Government?— DU BARTAS — Divine Weekes and Workes. First Week. Fifth Day. Pt. I.
"Whatever is, is not," is the maxim of the anarchist, as often as anything comes across him in the shape of a law which he happens not to like.— RICHARD BENTLEY — Declaration of
Rights. Well, will anybody deny now that the Government at Washington, as regards its own people, is the strongest government in the world at this hour? And for this simple reason, that it is based on the will, and the good will, of an instructed people.— JOHN BRIGHT — Speech at Rochdale.
Nov. 24, 1863. And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them.— BURKE — Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. Vol. V. P. 156.
So then because some towns in England are not represented, America is to have no representative at all. They are our children;" but when children ask for bread we are not to give a stone.— BURKE — Speech on American Taxation. Vol. II. P. 74.
Than an old, lazy government, That knows no interest of state, But such as serves a present strait.— BUTLER — Miscellaneous Thoughts. L. 159.
A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 84.
A power has arisen up in the Government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.— JOHN C. CALHOUN — In the U. S. Senate.
May 28, 1836. And the first thing I would do in my government, I would have nobody to control me, I would be absolute; and who but I: now, he that is absolute, can do what he likes; he that can do what he likes, can take his pleasure; he that can take his pleasure, can be content; and he that can be content, has no more to desire; so the matter's over.— CERVANTES — Don Quixote. Pt. I. Bk. IV. Ch. XXIII.
There was a State without kings or nobles; there was a church without a bishop; there was a people governed by grave magistrates which it had elected, and equal laws which it had framed.— RUFUS CHOATE — Speech before the New
England Society. December 22, 1843. Who's in or out, who moves this grand machine, Nor stirs my curiosity nor spleen: Secrets of state no more I wish to know Than secret movements of a puppet show: Let but the puppets move, I've my desire, Unseen the hand which guides the master wire.— CHURCHILL — Night. L. 257.
Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees; and both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.— HENRY CLAY — Speech at Lexington.
May 16, 1829. I have considered the pension list of the republic a roll of honor.— GROVER CLEVELAND — Veto of Mary Ann
Dougherty's Pension, July 5, 1888. Though the people support the government the government should not support the people. S.— GROVER CLEVELAND — Veto of Texas
Seed-bill, Feb. 16, 1887. I am the State. DULAURE attributes this saying to LOUIS XIV. in his History of Paris, 1863. P. 387. Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving how not to do it.— DICKENS — Little Dorrit. Bk. III. Ch. X.
A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy.— BENJ. DISRAELI — Speech. March 17,
1845. Free trade is not a principle, it is an expedient.— BENJ. DISRAELI — On Import Duties.
April 25, 1843. Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state.— DRYDEN — Absalom and Achitophel. Pt. I. L. 174.
That those who think must govern those that toil.— GOLDSMITH — The Traveller. L. 372.
Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation.— ABRAM S. HEWITT — Democratic
Platform. 1884. The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth.— SAM'L JOHNSON — Life of Milton.
The congress of Vienna does not walk, but it dances.
Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning, die, But leave us still our old nobility.— LORD JOHN MANNERS — England's Trust. Pt. III. L. 227.
To make a bank, was a great plot of state; Invent a shovel, and be a magistrate.— ANDREW MARVELL — The Character of
Holland. Hope nothing from foreign governments. They will never be really willing to aid you until you have shown that you are strong enough to conquer without them.— MAZZINI — Life and Writings. Young
Italy. If the prince of a State love benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire.— MENCIUS — Works. Bk. IV. Pt. I. Ch.7.
There is what I call the American idea. *** This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy, -that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom. S.— THEODORE PARKER — Speech at the N. E.
Anti-Slavery Convention, Boston, 1850. May 29. Better a hundred times an honest and capable administration of an erroneous policy than a corrupt and incapable administration of a good one.— E. J. PHELPS — At Dinner of the N. Y.
Chamber of Commerce, Nov. 19, 1889. The government will take the fairest of names, but the worst of realities-mob rule. u. POLYBIUS. VI. 57. The right divine of kings to govern wrong.— POPE — The Dunciad. Bk. IV. L. 188.
Say to the seceded States- Wayward sisters, depart in peace!— WINFIELD SCOTT — Letter to W. H.
Seward, March 3, 1861. For government, through high and low and lower, Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, Congreeing in a full and natural close, Like music.— Shakespeare — X. Henry V. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 180.
How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands, Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible.— Shakespeare — King Lear. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 243.
Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by women.— Shakespeare — Richard III. Act I. Sc. 1. L. 62.
Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light.— SYDNEY SMITH — On American Debts.
The schoolboy whips his taxed top, the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent., flings himself back on his chintz bed, which has paid twenty-two per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death.— SYDNEY SMITH — Review of Seybert's
Annals. United States. Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small.— SPENSER — Faerie Queene. Bk. V. Canto II. St. 51.
The people's government made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people.— DANIEL WEBSTER — Second Speech on
Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood!— DANIEL WEBSTER — Second Speech on
Foot's Resolution, Jan. 26, 1830. Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, he (Socrates) considered the government to be an aristocracy.— XENOPHON — Memorabilia of Socrates. Bk. IV. Ch. 6.
In principatu commutando civium Nil præter domini nomen mutant pauperes. In a change of government, the poor seldom change anything except the name of their master.— PHEDRUS — Fabulæ. I. 15.
Invisa nunquam imperia retinentur diu. A hated government does not last long.— SENECA — Phœnissa. VI. 60.
Omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperâsset. In the opinion of all men he would have been regarded as capable of governing, if he had never governed.— TACITUS — Annales. I. 49.
La corruption de chaque gouvernement commence presque toujours par celle des principes. The deterioration of a government begins almost always by the decay of its principles.— MONTESQUIEU — De l'Esprit. VIII. Ch. I.
Les républiques finissent par le luxe; les monarchies, par la pauvreté. Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.— MONTESQUIEU — De l'Esprit. VII. Ch. IV.
L'état c'est moi. I am the state. १. Attributed to LOUIS XIV. Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige die uns lehrt uns selbst zu regieren. What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.— GOETHE — Sprüche in Prosa. III.
Gli ambasciadori sono l'occhio e l'orecchio degli stati. Ambassadors are the eye and ear of states.— GUICCIARDINI — Storia d' Italia.