Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?
– Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801)
Tag Archives: government
…Then How Can You Trust Them to Govern Others?
Government as a Joke <- Will Rogers
I don’t make jokes, I just watch the government and report the facts.
– Will Rogers, Saturday Review (25 August 1962)
They’re Worse than Nothing
Suppose two-thirds of the members of the national House of Representatives were dumped into the Washington garbage incinerator tomorrow, what would we lose to offset our gain of their salaries and the salaries of their parasites?
– H. L. Mencken, Prejudices, the Second Series1924
The Rush to Pass Bad Laws
The State always moves slowly and grudgingly towards any purpose that accrues to society’s advantage, but moves rapidly and with alacrity towards one that accrues to its own advantage; nor does it ever move towards social purposes on its own initiative, but only under heavy pressure, while its motion towards anti-social purposes is self-sprung.
— Albert Jay Nock “Our Enemy, the State“
Coddling Stupidity
Whenever government assumes to deliver us from the trouble of thinking for ourselves, the only consequences it produces are those of torpor and imbecility.
— William Godwin, An Inquiry Concerning Political Justice, 1783
Patriotism > Government
Remember this, take it to heart, live by it, die for it if necessary…true patriotism, the rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.
– Mark Twain, The Czar Soliloquy, 1905
The Non-Interference Principle
If rulers take too much grain, People rapidly starve; If rulers take too much freedom, People easily rebel; If rulers take too much happiness, People gladly die.
By not interfering the sage improves the people’s lives.
The Sum of Good Government
A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, 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.
— Thomas Jefferson‘s First Inaugural Address
The Individual as the Higher Power
There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.
— Henry David Thoreau
Words of the Sentient 