Quotes · Skopia

53 quotes

1998

★ 1.0

In all tyrannical governments, the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.

William Blackstone

Commentaries on the Laws of England · 1769

★ 1.1

Speech · Political speech

Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: "We the People." "We the People" tell the government what to do; it doesn't tell us."We the People" are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the People" tell the government what it is allowed to do."We the People" are free.

Ronald Reagan

1989 Farewell Address · 1989

★ 1.1

Speech · Political speech

And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Ronald Reagan

1989 Farewell Address · 1989

★ 1.1

The first duty of a State is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated, till it attain years of discretion.

John Ruskin

1867

★ 1.8

Speech · Political speech

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

1829

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may.

Daniel Webster

1835

★ 1.9

Interview · TV program

Very few people spend other people's money as carefully as they spend their own.

Milton Friedman

1975

★ 1.9

Letter

Every country has the government it deserves.

Joseph de Maistre

1811

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

Every segment of our population and every individual has a right to expect from our Government a fair deal.

Harry Truman

1949 State of the Union · 1949

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.

Ronald Reagan

1964

★ 1.9

Speech · Political speech

One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns.

Ronald Reagan

1973

★ 1.9

Political literature

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790

★ 2.0

Speech · Political speech

This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State.

Abraham Lincoln

1858

★ 2.0

Political literature

So long as the State exists, there can be no freedom. When there is freedom there will be no State.

Vladimir Lenin

State and Revolution · 1917

★ 2.0

Lecture

The State is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class, used to break the resistance of the adversaries of that class.

Joseph Stalin

1924

★ 2.0

Speech · Political speech

Government is like a baby—it’s got an alimentary canal at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Ronald Reagan

1965

★ 2.0

Pamphlet · Political literature

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

John Adams

1776

★ 2.1

Essay · Philosophical literature · Political literature

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

John Stuart Mill

On Liberty · 1859

★ 2.1

Speech · Political speech

While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.

Abraham Lincoln

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln · 1861

★ 2.1

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