Thursday, July 10, 2008

A few quotes on politics

An ideal form of government is democracy tempered with assassination. - Voltaire

Too many piglets, not enough tits. - Abraham Lincoln

Do not trust the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you or I were going to be hanged. - Oliver Cromwell

A man will fight harder for his interests than for his rights. - Napoleon

Democracy is grounded upon so childish a complex of fallacies that they must be protected by a rigid system of taboos, else even halfwits would argue it to pieces. Its first concern must thus be to penalize the free play of ideas. - H.L. Mencken

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. - Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural address, 1801

Those are governed best who are governed least. - Thomas Jefferson

I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to James Madison, January 30, 1787

Government is not reason, nor eloquence. It is force. And like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearsome master. - George Washington

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with an average voter. - Winston Churchill

Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of Temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes at the very principles upon which our government was founded. - Abraham Lincoln

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies. - Groucho Marx

Love your country, but never trust its government. - Robert Heinlein

We must not look to government to solve our problems. Government is the problem. - Ronald Reagan


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