Sourced and curated.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

Alexander Hamilton

Federalist 15 · 1787

★ 7.1

It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 7.0

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.

Political literature · Philosophical literature

Federalist 51 · 1788

★ 7.0

The State is not "abolished", it withers away.

Friedrich Engels

Anti-Duhring · 1878

★ 7.0

Magazine

The best government is that which governs least.

John L. O'Sullivan

1837

★ 6.9

Political literature · Philosophical literature

Whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasions for it.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Discourses on Livy · 1531

★ 6.2

Personal journal

If all men were just, there still would be some, though not so much, need of government.

1854

★ 5.5

There are no necessary evils in the government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favor alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.

Andrew Jackson

1832

★ 5.3

England is the mother of parliaments.

John Bright

Speech in Birmingham, January 18, 1865 · 1865

★ 5.3

The government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away.

Barry Goldwater

1964

★ 5.2

Now there is one outstanding important fact regarding Spaceship Earth, and that is that no instruction book came with it.

Buckminster Fuller

1969

★ 5.2

Treatise · Political literature · Philosophical literature

The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince · 1532

★ 4.7

Philosophical dialogue · Dialogue · Philosophical literature

Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and power of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils.

Socrates

Plato, Republic · 375 BC

★ 4.0

Economic literature

There is no art which one government sooner learns of another, than that of draining money from the pockets of the people.

Adam Smith

The Wealth of Nations · 1776

★ 3.9

Dialogue · Political literature

For there is nothing that happens on earth that is more welcome to that supreme God who rules the whole universe than the institutions and congregations of men united by a sense of right, which are called states.

Cicero

On the Commonwealth · 51 BC

★ 3.8

Political literature · Philosophical literature

During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan · 1651

★ 3.8

Pamphlet · Political literature

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

Thomas Paine

Common Sense · 1776

★ 3.8

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? Let history answer this question.

Thomas Jefferson

First Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson · 1801

★ 3.8

Letter

All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it.

Benjamin Franklin

1783

★ 3.7

A good government implies two things: first, fidelity to the object of government, which is the happiness of the people; secondly, a knowledge of the means by which that object can be best attained.

Federalist 62 · 1788

★ 3.7

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the State governments, in times of peace and security.

Federalist 45 · 1788

★ 3.7

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.

1848

★ 3.7

To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity, among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help.

1859

★ 3.7

Press conference

Ronald Reagan

1986

★ 3.7

Philosophical literature

Whoso taketh in hand to frame any state or government, ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

Sir Walter Raleigh

1618

★ 3.6

Poem

For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administered is best.

Alexander Pope

An Essay on Man · 1733

★ 3.6

Poem

How small, of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!

Oliver Goldsmith

1765

★ 3.6

Political literature

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

Gerald Ford

1960

★ 3.6

Poem

For where's the state beneath the firmament That doth excel the bees for government?

Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas

1578

★ 3.5

Treatise · Political literature · Philosophical literature

Many have imagined republics and principalities which have never been seen or known to exist in reality; for how we live is so far removed from how we ought to live; that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin that his preservation.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince · 1532

★ 3.0

Essay · Economic literature

I believe that in many cases the ideal size for the unit of control and organisation lies somewhere between the individual and the modern State. I suggest, therefore, that progress lies in the growth and the recognition of semi-autonomous bodies within the State.

John Maynard Keynes

The End of Laissez-faire · 1926

★ 2.7

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

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.

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.

First Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln · 1861

★ 2.1

Political literature

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France · 1790

★ 2.0

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.