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GOODNESS
GOODWILL --- GOSSIP --- GOVERNMENT

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GOODNESS

see: "GRACE"
see "CHARACTER" for other related links
see "KINDNESS" for other related links


I'm as pure as the driven slush.
--Tallulah Bankhead (1903—1968)
American actress.
In "Saturday Evening Post" [12 April 1947].

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of
others cannot keep it from themselves.
--Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860—1937)
Scottish writer and dramatist.
Quoted in James Wood (ed.)
_Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and
Modern, English and Foreign Sources_, p. 483 [1893].

To be good to the vile is to throw water into the sea.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.

He that is good will infallibly become better, and he that is bad
will as certainly become worse; for vice, virtue, and time are
three things that never stand still.
--C.C. Colton (1780—1832)
English clergyman and writer.

We believe at once in evil; we only believe in
good upon reflection. Is not this sad?
--Madame Dorothιe Deluzy (1747—1830)
French actress.
Quoted in Theodore Taylor (pseud. of John Camden Hotten)
The Golden Treasury of Thought_ p. 88 [1874].

If people are good only because they fear punishment,
and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.
--Albert Einstein (1879—1955)
German-American physicist who developed the
special and general theories of relativity.

It is a grand mistake to think of being
great without goodness; and I pronounce
it is certain that there was never yet a
truly great man that was not at the same
time truly virtuous.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
"The Busy-Body Papers" in the
_American Weekly Mercury_ [18 February 1729].

We can often better help another by fanning a
glimmer of goodness than by censuring his faults.
--attributed to Edmund Gibson (1669—1748)
English theologian and jurist.

The virtue which requires to be ever guarded
is scarce worth the sentinel.
--Oliver Goldsmith (1728—1774)
Anglo-Irish writer, poet, and dramatist.
_The Vicar of Wakefield_ [1766]

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing
therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to
any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or
neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
--Stephen Grellet (1773—1855)
French missionary.
Attributed; there are many claimants to authorship.

A good man is kinder to his enemy than
bad men to their friends.
--Joseph Hall (1574—1656)
English bishop, moral philosopher, and satirist.
Quoted in Matthew Russell (ed.) _The Irish Monthly_, V. xvi [1888].

We all wear some disguise, make some professions,
use some artifice, to set ourselves off as being
better than we are; and yet it is not denied that
we have some good intentions and praiseworthy
qualities at bottom.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.
_Sketches and Essays_ [1839], "On Cant and Hypocrisy"

Goodness alone is *never* enough. A hard, cold wisdom
is required for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness
without wisdom always accomplishes evil.
--Robert A(nson) Heinlein (1907—1988)
American science-fiction writer.
_Stranger In A Strange Land_ [1961]

But this we know: good deeds are never
childless. A noble life is never lost.
--Robert Green Ingersoll (1833—1899)
American politician and orator know as "the great agnostic."
"A Tribute to Elizur Wright" [19 December 1885]

As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them,
and am ready now to call a man a good man upon
easier terms than I was formerly.
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ [1791].

Many individuals have, like uncut diamonds,
shining qualities beneath a rough exterior.
--Juvenal (c. 55—130)
Roman satirist.

It is with certain good qualities as with the senses; those
who are entirely deprived of them can neither appreciate
nor comprehend them.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.

You are not very good if you are not better
than your best friends imagine you to be.
--Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741—1801)
Swiss writer, Protestant pastor, and founder of physiognomics.
Quoted in Tryon Edwards
_A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 200 [1908 ed.].

Men have less lively perception of good than of evil.
--Livy [Titus Livius] (59 BC—17 AD)
With Sallust and Tacitus, one of the three great Roman historians.
_Annales_, XXX, 21

There is no man so good that if he submitted all his actions
and thoughts to the scrutiny of the laws, he would not
deserve hanging ten times in his life.
--Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533—1592)
French moralist and essayist.
_Essais_ (Essays) [94 chapters written 1571—1580 & published 1580;
the last 13 chapters were written 1585—1587 & published 1588.]
Bk. 3, ch. 9 [1580]

On the whole, human beings want to be good,
but not too good and not quite all the time.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
"The Art of Donald McGill" in _Horizon_ [September, 1941]

Good men can more easily see through bad
men than the latter can the former.
--Jean Paul Richter (1763—1825)
German novelist.
_Hesperus_, IV [1794]

No good thing is ever lost. Nothing dies, not even life, which
gives up one form only to resume another. No good action,
no good example dies. It lives forever in our race. While the
frame moulders and disappears, the deed leaves an indelible
stamp, and moulds the very thought and will of future
generations.
--Samuel Smiles (1812—1904)
Scottish author.
_Duty_ [1880]

It is in men as in soils where sometimes there
is a vein of gold which the owner knows not of.
--Jonathan Swift (1667—1745)
Anglo-Irish poet and satirist.

If I knew that a man was coming to my house with the
conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my
life.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
Quoted in Evan Esar _20,000 Quips & Quotes_ [1995].

Be good and you will be lonesome.
--Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835—1910)
American humorist, novelist, journalist, and river pilot.
Holographed caption under frontispiece photograph
of the author in _Following the Equator_ [1897].

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[In reply to 'Goodness, what beautiful diamonds!'
Mandie Triplett (Mae West) replies:]
'Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie.'
--Mae West (1893—1980)
American stage and film actress.
"Night After Night" [1932 film]


I used to be Snow White. . . but I drifted.
--Mae West (1893—1980)
American stage and film actress.
In Joseph Weintraub _Peel Me a Grape_ [1975].

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That best portion of a good man's life.
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
of kindness and of love.
--William Wordsworth (1770—1850)
English poet.
"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" [1798]

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Whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is right, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is of good
repute, if there is any excellence and
anything worthy of praise, let your mind
dwell on these things.
--St. Paul, Epistle to the Philippians, Chapter 4, Verses 4-8



GOODWILL

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see "KINDNESS" for related links


I know, indeed, of nothing more subtly satisfying and
cheering than a knowledge of the real good will and
appreciation of others. Such happiness does not come
with money, nor does it flow from fine physical state.
It cannot be brought. But it is the keenest joy,
after all; and the toiler's truest and best reward.
--William Dean Howells (1837—1920)
American novelist and critic.

The naοve notion that we can preserve freedom by
exuding goodwill is not only silly, but dangerous.
The more adherents it wins, the more it tempts
the aggressor.
--Richard Nixon (1913—1994)
American Republican statesman, President [1969—1974].
_The Real War_ [1980]



GOSSIP

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see: "REPUTATION"
see: "RUMOR"
see: "SCANDAL"
see "COMMUNICATION" for other related links
see "HURTING (SOMEONE)" for other related links


There is nothing that more betrays a base
ungenerous spirit than the giving of secret
stabs to a man's reputation. Lampoons
and satires, that are written with wit and
spirit, are like poisoned darts, which not
only inflict a wound, but make it incurable.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
_The Spectator_ [1711—1712]

Old maids sweeten their tea with scandal.
--Josh Billings [Henry Wheeler Shaw] (1818—1885)
American humorist.
Quoted in David Kin _Dictionary of American Maxims_ [1955].

I am more deadly than the screaming shell from the
howitzer. I win without killing. I tear down homes,
break hearts, and wreck lives. I travel on the wings
of the wind. No innocence is strong enough to
intimidate me, no purity pure enough to daunt me.
I have no regard for truth, no respect for justice,
no mercy for the defenseless. My victims are as
numerous as the sands of the sea, and often as
innocent. I never forget and seldom forgive.
My name is Gossip.
--Morgan Blake,
_Atlanta Journal_

There's not the least thing can be said or done,
but people will talk and find fault.
--Miguel de Cervantes (1547—1616)
Spanish novelist.
_Don Quixote de la Mancha_, Pt. 1 [1605], bk. 2, ch. 4.

[To a reporter in 1912:]
I don't care what you say about me, as long as you
say *something* about me, and as long as you spell
my name right.
--George M. Cohan (1878—1942)
American songwriter, dramatist, and producer.
Quoted in John McCabe _George M. Cohan_ [1973].

Alas! they had been friends in youth;
But whispering tongues can poison truth.
--Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772—1834)
English poet, critic, and philosopher.
_Christabel_, pt. II

^

The Waterloo, Neb., city council in 1910 passed an ordinance
making it illegal for barbers "to discuss the gossip of the town"
with their customers. The ordinance also prohibited barbers
from eating onions between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 p.m.
and from sticking their fingers in the mouths of their customers.
--Cynthia Crossen
"Gossip: So Much Fun People Once Tried To Make It Illegal"
_The Wall Street Journal_ [4 June 2007]

^

If you are tempted to reveal
A tale to you someone has told
About another, make it pass
Before you speak, three gates of gold.
These narrow gates: First, 'Is it true?'
Then, 'Is it needful?' In your mind
Give truthful answer. And the next
Is last and narrowest, 'Is it kind?'
And if to reach your lips at last
It passes through these gateways three,
Then you may tell the tale, nor fear
What the result of speech may be.
--Beth Day
"Three Gates" [1855]

To speak ill of others is a dishonest
way of praising ourselves.
--Will [William James] Durant (1885—1981) & Ariel Durant (1898—1981)
American husband and wife writing collaborators whose
_Story of Civilization_ 11 vol. [1935-1975], established
them among the best known writers of popular
philosophy and history.

Gossip is a sort of smoke that comes from the dirty
tobacco-pipes of those who diffuse it; it proves
nothing but the bad taste of the smoker.
--George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819—1880)
English novelist.
_Daniel Deronda_ [1876]

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Hear no ill of a Friend,
nor speak any of an Enemy.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Poor Richard's Almanack_ [1739]


I am about Courting a Girl I have had but little Acquaintance with;
how shall I come to a Knowledge of her Fawlts? and whether she
has the Virtues I imagine she has?
Answ. Commend her among her Female Acquaintances.
--Benjamin Franklin (1706—1790)
American politician, inventor, and scientist.
_Pennsylvania Gazette_ [12 March 1732]

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The best-loved man or maid in the town would perish
with anguish could they hear all that their friends
say in the course of a day.
--John Milton Hay (1838—1905)
U.S. secretary of state [1898—1905] associated with the Open Door policy toward China.

Every one in a crowd has the power to throw
dirt: nine out of ten have the inclination.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.

I don't care what is written about me
so long as it isn't true.
--Katharine Hepburn (1907—2003)
American stage and motion-picture actress; winner of four Academy Awards.

To tell tales out of school.
--John Heywood (1497—1580)
English playwright.
_Proverbs_ [1546]

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In the old days of barbarism, the people
fought with hatchets. Civilized men buried
the hatchet, and now fight with gossip.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937)
American journalist and author.
_Country Town Sayings_ [1911]


What people say behind your back is
your standing in the community.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937)
American journalist and author.
Quoted in Robert Andrews
_The Routledge Dictionary of Quotations_, p. 254 [1987].

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Gossip is vice enjoyed vicariously — the sweet,
subtle satisfaction without the risk.
--Frank McKinney (Kin) Hubbard (1868—1930)
American humorist.

Johnson observed that, 'he did not care to speak ill of
any man behind his back, but he believed the gentleman
was an *attorney.*'
--Samuel Johnson (1709—1784)
English poet, critic, and lexicographer.
In James Boswell, _The Life of Samuel Johnson_ (Entry of 1770) [1791].

Bad news travels fast.
--"Lady's Book" [1 October 1830]

If you can't say something good about
anyone, sit right here by me.
--Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884—1980)
Daughter of Theodore Roosevelt.
(Motto embroidered on a sofa cushion.)

There are different ways of assassinating a man —
by pistol, sword or poison, or moral assassination.
They are the same in their results except the last
is more cruel.
--Napoleon I (1769—1821)
Emperor of France [1804—1815].
Maxims (1804-15)

You do not know it but you are the talk of all the town.
--Ovid [Publius Ovidius Naso] (43 B.C.—18 A.D.)
Roman poet.
"Metamorphoses"
"The Art of Love" III, 1, 21.

I lay it down as a fact that if all men knew what
others say of them, there would not be four
friends in the world.
--Blaise Pascal (1623—1662)
French mathematician, physicist, and moralist.
_Pensιes_ ("Thoughts"), no. 646 [1658]

Let us believe neither half of the good people
tell us of ourselves, nor half the evil they say
of others.
--Jean-Antoine Petit-Senn (1792—1870)
French-Swiss lyric poet.

You tittle-tattlers, and those who listen to slander,
by my good will should all be hanged — the former
by their tongues, the latter by their ears.
--Titus Maccius Plautus (254—184 BC)
Roman comic dramatist.
_Pseudolus_, I. 5. 12.

At every word a reputation dies.
--Alexander Pope (1688—1744)
English poet.
_The Rape of the Lock_ [1712], canto III, l. 16

Throw dirt enough, and some will stick.
--_A letter from a Catholick gentleman to
his Popish friends_ [6 November 1678]

Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest
be the least part of what thou believest.
--Francis Quarles (1592—1644)
English poet.
_Enchiridion_ [1640]

Of every ten persons who talk about you, nine
will say something bad, and the tenth will say
something good in a bad way.
--Antoine de Rivarol (1753—1801)
French man of letters.

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
--Bertrand Russell (1872—1970)
British philosopher, mathematician, and Nobel laureate.
_The Aims of Education_ (essay)

Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,
thou shall not escape calumny.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Hamlet_ [1601]

It seems that the analysis of character is the highest
human entertainment. And literature does it, unlike
gossip, without mentioning real names.
--Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904—1991)
Polish-American novelist who won the 1978 Nobel Prize for Literature.
Interview with Richard Burgin in
_The New York Times Magazine_ [26 November 1978].

Whoever gossips to you, will gossip of you.
--Spanish proverb

Never speak ill of yourself; your friends will always say enough on that subject.
--Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Pιrigord (1754—1838)
French statesman.
Attributed in Herbert Victor Prochnow
_Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms_[1955]

There are two things that will be believed of any man whatsoever,
and one of them is that he has taken to drink.
--Booth Tarkington (1869—1946)
American novelist and dramatist.
_Penrod_ [1914]

Speak not Evil of the absent for it is unjust.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the colonial armies in the American
Revolution [1775—1783] and first president of the United States [1789—1797].
[Copybook 1748]

There is only one thing in the world worse than
being talked about, and that is not being talked
about.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_The Picture of Dorian Gray_, ch. I [1891]

I usually get my stuff from people who promised
somebody else that they would keep it a secret.
--attributed to Walter Winchell (1897—1972)
American journalist.

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Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss
events; Small minds discuss people.
--anon.
Hyman G. Rickover in _The Saturday Evening Post_ of 28
November 1959 credits the saying to an "unknown sage".

More people are run down by gossip than by automobiles.
--anon.

It isn't difficult to make a mountain out
of a molehill — just add a little dirt.
--anon.

There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it ill behooves any of us,
To say anything about the rest of us.
--anon.
In _Notes and Queries_ [1850].

-----

scuttlebutt [SKUHT-l-buht], noun:
1. A drinking fountain on a ship.
2. A cask on a ship that contains the day's supply of drinking water.
3. Informal. Gossip; rumor.

yenta (noun) [ 'yen-tκ]
A nosy, meddlesome woman;
a gabby, gossipy busy-body.



GOVERNMENT

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see "POLITICS" for related links

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Fear is the foundation of most governments.
--John Adams (1735—1826)
First VP and second President of the United States.
_Thoughts on Government_ [1776]


There is but one element of government, and that is *the people.*
From this element spring all governments. For a nation to be
free, it is only necessary that she wills it. For a nation to be
slave, it is only necessary that she wills it.
--John Adams (1735—1826)
First VP and second President of the United States.
Letter to John Taylor [1814].

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There can not a greater judgment befall a country than
such a dreadful spirit of division as rends a government
into two distinct people, and makes them greater strangers
and more averse to one another than if they were actually
two different nations.
--Joseph Addison (1672—1719)
English essayist, poet, and dramatist.
_The Spectator_ [24 July 1711]

In a change of government the poor change
nothing but the name of their masters.
--Ζsop (c. 620 B.C.—c. 560 B.C.)
(Thought to be a legendary figure.)
_Ζsop's Fables_
"The Ass and the Old Shepherd"

[The War Office kept three sets of figures:] one to
mislead the public, another to mislead the Cabinet,
and the third to mislead itself.
--H(erbert) H(enry) Asquith (1852—1928)
Liberal prime minister of Great Britain [1908—1916].
In Alistair Horne _Price of Glory_ [1962].

When any of the four pillars of government are
mainly shaken, or weakened — which are religion,
justice, counsel and treasure — men had need to
pray for fair weather.
--Francis Bacon (1561—1626)
English philosopher and essayist.
_Essays_ "Of Seditions And Troubles" [1625]

Government is the great fiction, through which everybody
endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.
--Frederic Bastiat (1801—1850)
French economist.

Our government is built upon the vote. But votes that
are purchasable are quicksands, and a government
built on them stands upon corruption and revolution.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister;
[brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.]
_Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit_ "Political" [1887]

Our American system of government by lobbyist guarantees
us a form of taxation with representation that the founding
fathers did not foresee: special interests get the representation
while the broad public gets the taxation.
--Alan S. Blinder (1945— )
American economist.
_Hard Head, Soft Hearts: Tough-Minded Economics for a Just Society_ [1987]

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Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect
liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men
born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their
liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty
lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning
but without understanding.
--Louis Brandeis (1856—1941)
American lawyer and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court [1916—1939].
Dissenting opinion "Olmstead v. United States" [1928].


The makers of our Constitution [...] conferred, as
against the Government, the right to be let alone —
the most comprehensive of rights and the right
most valued by civilized men.
--Louis Brandeis (1856—1941)
American lawyer and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court [1916—1939].
Dissenting opinion "Olmstead v. United States" [1928].


If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt
for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it
invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the
criminal law the end justifies the means — to declare that the
Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction
of a private criminal — would bring terrible retribution.
--Louis Brandeis (1856—1941)
American lawyer and associate justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court [1916—1939].
Dissenting opinion "Olmstead v. United States" [1928].

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The office of government is not to confer happiness,
but to give men opportunity to work out happiness
for themselves.
--William Ellery Channing (1780—1842)
American Unitarian clergyman and author.

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This report, by its very length, defends itself
against the risk of being read.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].


Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried
in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy
is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy
is the worst form of government except all those other forms
that have been tried from time to time.
--Winston Churchill (1874—1965)
British Conservative statesman and
Prime Minister [1940—1945, 1951—1955].
Speech, House of Commons [11 November 1947].

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Depotism has forever had a powerful hold upon the world.
Autocratic government, not self-government, has been the
prevailing state of mankind. It needs to be remembered that
the record of past history is the record, not of the success
of republics, but of their failure.
--Calvin Coolidge (1872—1933)
American Republican statesman and President [1923—1929].
"The Destiny of America" Speech in Northhampton,
Massachusetts [30 May 1923].

We campaign in poetry, but when we're
elected we're forced to govern in prose.
--Mario Cuomo (1932— )
American lawyer and politician.
Speech at Yale University, New Haven, Conn. [15 February 1985].

The Russian government is an absolute
monarchy tempered by assassination.
--Astolphe Louis Leonard, Marquis de Custine (1790—1857)
French writer, playwright, poet and traveler.
_La Russie en 1839_, vol I [1843]

Government has hardened into a tyrannical
monopoly, and the human race in general
becomes as absolutely property as beasts
in the plow.
--John Dickinson (1732—1808)
American politician.
In a letter to Thomas McKean [22 November 1802].

No government can long be secure without a formidable
Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable
number which can be managed by the joint influences
of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the
discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and
employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise
may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].
_Coningsby_ [1844] , bk.II, ch.1

Every form of government tends to perish
by excess of its basic principle.
--Will Durant (1885—1981)
American philosopher and writer.
_The Story of Philosophy_ "Plato" [1926]

In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or
unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential
for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will
persist. We must never let the weight of this combination
endanger our liberties or democratic processes.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890—1969),
American Army General, supreme Allied commander WWII,
NATO commander, American President [1953—1961].
"Farewell Speech" [17 January 1961]

The less government we have, the better, the fewer
laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to
this abuse of formal government is, the influence
of private character, the growth of the individual.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803—1882)
American philosopher and poet.

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If the Government is big enough to give you everything
you want, it is big enough to take away everything you
have.
--Gerald R. Ford (1909—2006)
38th President of the United States [1974—1977].
Address to a joint session of Congress [12 August 1974].

& see:

A government that is big enough to give you all you
want is big enough to take it all away.
--Barry Goldwater (1909—1998)
American conservative politician.

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The state is like the human body. Not
all of its functions are dignified.
--Anatole France [Jacques Anatole Thibault] (1844—1924)
French novelist, man of letters, and winner of the Nobel
Prize for Literature in 1921.
_Les Opinions de M. Jerome Coignard_ [1893]

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.
--Milton Friedman (1912—2006)
American laissez-faire economist;
winner of the 1976 Nobel Prize for Economics.
Quote in _Cleveland Plain Dealer_ [27 October 1993].

The proper function of a government is to make it
easy for people to do good, and difficult for them
to do evil.
--William Gladstone (1809—1898)
British Liberal statesman, Prime Minister
[1868—1874, 1880—1885, 1892—1894].
Quoted in Tryon Edwards _A Dictionary of Thoughts_, p. 203 [1908 ed.].

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions
of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice,
without constraint.
--Alexander Hamilton (1755or57—1804)
New York delegate to the Constitutional Convention,
major author of the _Federalist Papers_, and first
secretary of the Treasury of the United States [1789-1795].
_The Federalist_ [1787-1788] no.15

I believe and I say it is true Democratic feeling, that all the
measures of the Government are directed to the purpose
of making the rich richer and the poor poorer.
--William Henry Harrison (1773—1841)
American army officer and 9th President
of the United States [1841].
Speech [1 October 1840].

The government is mainly an expensive
organization to regulate evildoers, and tax
those who behave; government does little
for fairly respectable people except annoy
them.
--Edgar Watson Howe (1854—1937)
American journalist and author.
_Notes for My Biographer_ [1926]

-

The impersonal hand of government can never
replace the helping hand of a neighbor.
--Hubert H. Humphrey (1911—1978)
38th vice-president of the United States [1965—1969]
and liberal senator [1949—1965] & [1971—1978].


It was once said that the moral test of government is how
that government treats those who are in the dawn of life,
the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly;
and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy,
and the handicapped.
--Hubert H. Humphrey (1911—1978)
38th vice-president of the United States [1965—1969]
and liberal senator [1949—1965] & [1971—1978].
Speech at dedication of Hubert H. Humphrey
Building, Washington, D.C. [1 November 1977].

-

The duties of all public officers are, or at least admit
of being made, so plain and simple that men of
intelligence may readily qualify themselves for
their performance; and I cannot but believe that
more is lost by the long continuance of men in
office than is generally to be gained by their
experience.
--Andrew Jackson {Old Hickory} (1767—1845)
American military hero and 7th president
of the United States [1829—1837].

-

But with all the imperfections of our present
government, it is without comparison the best
existing, or that ever did exist.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to Edward Carrington [4 August 1787].


The legitimate powers of government extend to such
acts only as are injurious to others.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
"Notes on the State of Virginia" 17, [1785]


A wise and frugal Government, which shall refrain 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. This is the sum
of good government.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
First Inaugural Address [4 March 1801].


The natural progress of things is for liberty to
yield and government to gain ground.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to Edward Carrington [27 May 1788].


The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on
certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].


Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the
general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].


That government is best which governs the least.
--attributed to Thomas Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, and others.


The basis of our government being the opinion of
the people, the very first object should be to keep
that right; and were it left to me to decide whether
we should have a government without newspapers,
or newspapers without a government, I should not
hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter.
--Thomas Jefferson (1743—1826)
American statesman and president [1801—1809].
Letter to Colonel Edward Carrington [16 January 1787].

-

Government action is not the whole answer to the present crisis,
but it is an important partial answer. Morals cannot be legislated,
but behavior can be regulated. The law cannot make an employer
love me, but it can keep him from refusing to hire me because of
the color of my skin.
--Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929—1968)
American civil rights leader.
_Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story_ ch. II [1958]

-

"A house divided against itself cannot stand."

I believe this government cannot endure, permanently
half slave and half free.

I do not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not
expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease
to be divided.

It will become all one thing, or all the other.

--Abraham Lincoln (1809—1865)
American Republican statesman, President [1861—1865].
"House Divided" speech in the Lincoln-Douglas debate,
Springfield, Illinois [16 June 1858].

-

The great and *chief end*, therefore, of Men's
uniting into Commonwealths, and putting themselves
under Government, *is the Preservation of their
Property*.
--John Locke (1632—1704)
English political and educational philosopher.
_Two Treatises of Government_ [1690]

Because it is difficult to join them together, it is
much safer for a prince to be feared than loved, if
he is to fail in one of the two.
--Niccolς Machiavelli (1469—1527)
Florentine statesman and political philosopher.
_The Prince_ [written 1513]

-

I go on the principle that a public debt is a public curse,
and in a Republican Government a greater curse than
in any other.
--James Madison (1751—1836)
Fourth president of the United States [1809—1817].
Letter to Henry Lee [13 April 1790].


If men were virtuous, there would be no need
of governments at all.
--James Madison (1751—1836)
Fourth president of the United States [1809—1817].
In Alistair Cooke _America_ [1973].


Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.
--James Madison (1751—1836)
Fourth president of the United States [1809—1817].

-

Every country has the government it deserves.
--Joseph-Marie, Comte de Maistre (1753—1821)
French diplomat and writer.
Letter of 15 August 1811.

Hope nothing from foreign governments. They will never
be really willing to aid you until you have shown that you
are strong enough to conquer without them.
--Giuseppe Mazzini (1805—1872)
Italian patriot, philosopher and politician.
_Life and Writings_ "Young Italy"

-

The government consists of a gang of men exactly
like you and me. They have, taking one with another,
no special talent for the business of government;
they have only a talent for getting and holding
office. Their principal device to that end is to
search out groups who pant and pine for something
they can't get and to promise to give it to them.
Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing.
The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy
B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage,
and every election is sort of an advance auction
sale of stolen goods.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.


The Bill of Rights was designed trustfully to prohibit forever
two of the favorite crimes of all known governments: the
seizure of private property without adaquate compensation
and the invasion of the citizen's liberty without justifiable
cause and due process.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
_Prejudices: Fourth Series_ [1924] "On Government"

-

-

Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.
--Baron de Montesquieu (Charles Louis de Secondat) (1689—1755)
French philosopher, jurist, and satirist.
_De l'Esprit des lois_ (The Spirit of the Laws), VII, ch. IV [1748]


The deterioration of a government begins
almost always by the decay of its principles.
--Baron de Montesquieu (Charles Louis de Secondat) (1689—1755)
French philosopher, jurist, and satirist.
_De l'Esprit des lois_ (The Spirit of the Laws), VIII, ch. I [1748]

-

The whole idea of our government is this: If enough people get
together and act in concert, they can take something and not
pay for it.
--P.J. O'Rourke (1947— )
American political satirist.

Big Brother is watching you.
--George Orwell [Eric Blair] (1903—1950)
English novelist.
_Nineteen Eighty-Four_ pt. I, ch. 5 [1949]

Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even
in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state
an intolerable one.
--Thomas Paine [spelled Pane prior to 1774] (1737—1809)
English-American writer and political pamphleteer.
_Common Sense_ [1776]

-

The American system is not a democracy. It is a
constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach
meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority
rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And
the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was
put to death legally, because the majority didn't
like what he was saying, although he had initiated
no force and had violated no one's rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which
denies individual rights: the majority can do whatever
it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the
democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy
is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form
of freedom....

The American system is a constitutionally limited
republic, restricted to the protection of individual
rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable
only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain
personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic
principles governing the government. It has no power
to ask for or gain the infringement of individual
rights.

--Leonard Peikoff (1933— )
Canadian-born American philosopher.
_The Philosophy of Objectivism_, Lecture 9 [1976]

-

Governments exist to protect the rights of minorities.
The loved and the rich need no protection, — they
have many friends and few enemies.
--Wendell Phillips (1811—1884)
American abolitionist and reformer.
In a speech in Boston, Massachusetts [21 December 1860].

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse
to take part in the government, is to live under the
government of worse men.
--Plato (427?—347 B.C.)
Greek philosopher.
Quoted in Ralph Waldo Emerson
_Society and Solitude_ [1870] "Eloquence."

-

Government's view of the economy could be summed up
in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps
moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize
it.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.


Government exists to protect us from each other. We can't
afford the government it would take to protect us from
ourselves.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.


In the present crisis, government is not the solution
to our problem; government is the problem.
--Ronald Reagan (1911—2004)
American President [1981—1989] and former Hollywood actor.
Inaugural Address [20 January 1981].

-

If we do not halt this steady process of building
commissions and regulatory bodies and special
legislation like huge inverted pyramids over every
one of the simple constitutional provisions, we
shall soon be spending many billions of dollars
more.
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882—1945)
American Democratic statesman and President [1933—1945].
In a radio address [2 March 1930].
(Roosevelt had just noted that the annual
federal budget was 3 1/2 billion dollars - GBAQ.)

-

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible
government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility
to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the
unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is
the first task of the statesmanship of today.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].


I do not believe in government ownership of anything
which can with propriety be left in private hands, and
in particular I should most strenuously object to
government ownership of railroads.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In a speech in Raleigh, North Carolina [19 October 1905].


Everything is un-American that tends either to government
by a plutocracy, or government by a mob. To divide along
the lines of section or caste or creed is un-American. All
privilege based on wealth, and all enmity to honest men
merely because they are wealthy, are un-American — both
of them equally so. Americanism means the virtues of
courage, honor, justice, truth, sincerity, and hardihood —
the virtues that made America. The things that will destroy
America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price,
safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living,
and the get-rich-quick theory of life.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
In a letter to S. Stanwood Menken [10 January 1917].


The President is merely the most important among a large number
of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to
the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct,
his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested
service to the nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary
that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this
means that it is exactly as necessary to blame him when he does
wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an
American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must
be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President,
right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable
to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him
or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant
or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.
--Theodore Roosevelt (1858—1919)
American Republican statesman and President [1901—1909].
_The Works of Theodore Roosevelt_, v. 19, ch. 7, p. 289 [1926]

-

-

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul
can always depend on the support of Paul.
--George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]
_Everybody's Political What's What?_, ch. 30 [1944]


You have a choice between the natural stability of gold and
the honesty and intelligence of the members of government.
And with all due respect for those gentlemen, I advise you,
as long as the capitalist system lasts, vote for gold.
--attributed to George Bernard Shaw (1856—1950)
Irish comic dramatist, literary critic, Socialist
propagandist, and winner of the Nobel Prize
for Literature in 1925 [he didn't accept it.]

-

Pray for the welfare of the government, for it not for the
fear of the government, a man would swallow up his
neighbor alive.
--Talmud (A.D.1st—6th cent.)
Rabbinical writings.

I've still got a lot to learn about Washington. Why,
yesterday I accidentally spent some of my own money.
--Fred Thompson (1942— )
American actor and politician.
Quoted in Robert Dole _Great Political Wit_, p. 113 [2000].

-

Government never of itself furthered any enterprise,
but by the alacrity with which it got out of its way.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Civil Disobedience_ (essay) [1849]


I heartily accept the motto, 'That government is best which
governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more
rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts
to this, which also I believe, — That government is best
which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for
it, that will be the kind of government which they will have.
--Henry David Thoreau (1817—1862)
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.
_Civil Disobedience_ (essay) [1849]

-

Whenever you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.
--Harry S Truman (1884—1972)
American Democratic statesman, President of the U.S. [1945—1953].
Lecture at Columbia University [28 April 1959].

In general the art of government consists in
taking as much money as possible from one
class of citizens to give to the other.
--Voltaire (Franηois Marie Arouet) (1694—1778)
French writer and philosopher.
"Money", _Philosophical Dictionary_ [1764]

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence —
it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and
fearful master.
--George Washington (1732—1799)
American general and commander-in-chief of the
colonial armies in the American Revolution [1775—1783]
and first president of the United States [1789—1797].

-

Every culture has its distinctive and normal system of government. Yours
is democracy, moderated by corruption. Ours is totalitarianism, moderated
by assassination.
--attributed to anon. Russian

-----

laissez-faire (adj.) [lez-ey-'fer]
A governmental policy of non-interference in a free-enterprise
system; by extension, a policy of not interfering with anyone's
choices or actions.

oligarchy (noun)
A small governing group: a small group of people who
together govern a nation or control an organization,
often for their own purposes

plutocracy (noun)
Rule by the wealthy: the rule of a society by its
wealthiest people

quorum (noun)
Minimum number required for valid meeting: a fixed minimum
percentage or number of members of a legislative assembly,
committee, or other organization who must be present before
the members can conduct valid business


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