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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Ronald Reagan4 quotes
In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. — Ronald Reagan · 1981We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. — Ronald Reagan · 1981Ours 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 · 1989And 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 · 1989Grover Norquist2 quotes
My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub. — Grover Norquist · 2001I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. — Grover Norquist · 2001Barry Goldwater1 quote
The government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away. — Barry Goldwater · 1964George H.W. Bush1 quote
I have spoken of a Thousand Points of Light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led. — George H.W. Bush · 1989Gerald Ford1 quote
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. — Gerald Ford · 1960Henry David Thoreau1 quote
I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least";... Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all." — Henry David Thoreau · 1848James Buchanan1 quote
No more revenue ought to be collected from the people than the amount necessary to defray the expenses of a wise, economical, and efficient administration of the Government. — James Buchanan · 1857John L. O'Sullivan1 quote
The best government is that which governs least. — John L. O'Sullivan · 1837Robert Nozick1 quote
A minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified; that any more extensive state will violate persons' rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified; and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right. — Robert Nozick · 1974Thomas Jefferson1 quote
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 · 1801