Famous Quotes

"The growth of modern constitutional government compels for its successful practice the exercise of reason and considerate judgment by the individual citizens who constitute the electorate."

Elihu Root on Government

More quotes about Government

• "A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which 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, and this is necessary to close the circlue of our felicities."

  Thomas Jefferson on Government

• "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter."

  Winston Churchill on Government

• "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

  Thomas Jefferson on Government

• "Government is not reason it is not eloquent it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."

  George Washington on Government

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

  Thomas Paine on Government

More quotes by Elihu Root

• "The mere assemblage of peace loving people to interchange convincing reasons for their common faith, mere exhortation and argument to the public in favor of peace in general fall short of the mark."

• "Men do not fail they give up trying."

• "Secretary of War Stanton used to get out of patience with Lincoln because he was all the time pardoning men who ought to be shot."

• "It is to be observed that every case of war averted is a gain in general, for it helps to form a habit of peace, and community habits long continued become standards of conduct."

• "It is not uncommon in modern times to see governments straining every nerve to keep the peace, and the people whom they represent, with patriotic enthusiasm and resentment over real or fancied wrongs, urging them forward to war."