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Talk:Government

Latest comment: 4 years ago by 1.136.110.84 in topic Kershner quote

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Government page.

Possible quotes by unnotables have been moved here. My simple notability test was checking for wq page, checking for wp page and searching wp for alternative spellings. If anyone has any information about these people being notable, please add it here (or create wp/wq articles for them!) and add them back. Thanks ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 11:42, 11 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

  • "Society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers." ~ Mignon McLauglin
  • "Sweden's previous Minister of Justice amused the Americans on her visit. Her name is Gun Hellsvik, pronounced "gun hells week." ~ Ronny Eriksson
    • Being a Swedish name with possible variants, I searched for Ronnie Eriksson too, with no results. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 11:42, 11 October 2005 (UTC)Reply
      • Ronny Eriksson (full name Stig Olov Ronny Eriksson) is a swedish commedian and songwriter. Born 1953 in Boden he did his first appearans on a scene at the age of 19. 1989 he made his debut as a stand-up commedian and since then he has made regular appearance in swedish television and in bar shows. ~ Apanserdig (Talk) 09:22, 19 March 2006 (UTC)Reply

Is this the fucking government page or anarchy page? Not a single quote has to do with government or what it does, it just lists a bunch of quotes against government. I vote that this be taken down or fixed. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.1.208.114 (talk • contribs) 01:18, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

Did you ever think that the criticism of government stems from what it does? And besides, this is wikiquotes, not wikipedia.
—This unsigned comment is by 75.45.185.1 (talk • contribs) .

The quote "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty." is apparently original to Barnhill. It also appears in The American Anti-Socialist, a short-lived periodical, but since there is only a snippet view in Google Books, I linked to the slightly later publication. KHirsch 18:28, 16 October 2008 (UTC)Reply

Unsourced edit

Published sources should be provided before moving these back into the article
  • A properly functioning free market system does not spring spontaneously from society's soil as crabgrass springs from suburban lawns. Rather, it is a complex creation of laws and mores... Capitalism is a government program.
    • George Will unverified: This Week with Sam Donaldson, Jan. 13, 2002
  • Do not ask what the Government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.
  • In order to preserve liberty, the will of a free people must span greater than the overextended reach of an oppressive government.
    • Thomas Jefferson unverified: Congressional Meeting during his candidacy for President.
  • It's hard to argue with the government. Remember, they run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, so they must know a thing or two about satisfying women.
  • No government, of its own motion, will increase its own weakness, for that would mean to acquiesce in its own destruction ... governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself.
  • Secrecy, being an instrument of conspiracy, ought never to be the system of a regular government.
  • The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.
  • The essence of government is force, and most often that force is used to accomplish evil ends.
  • The one who votes decides nothing. The one who counts the vote decides everything.
  • The problem to be solved is, not what form of government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect.
  • The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
  • You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.
  • Yes, government is far too big. But that's not to say that it has much control. It makes a million laws and can't enforce most of them. So many laws, so little order.
  • Governments vary. A monarchy protects the interests of the people through the interest of the state while a democracy protects the interest of the state through the interests of the people.
    • Anonymous
  • Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote. - Unknown
  • The administration of government, like a guardianship, ought to be directed to the good of those who confer and not of those who receive the trust.
  • Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration, but temper and moderation generally produce permanence in all things.
  • No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable.
  • The best government is not that which renders men the happiest, but that which renders the greatest number happy.
  • No man undertakes a trade he has not learned, even the meanest; yet every one thinks himself sufficiently qualified for the hardest of all trades,—that of government.
  • In the early ages men ruled by strength; now they rule by brain, and so long as there is only one man in the world who can think and plan, he will stand head and shoulders above him who cannot.
  • The proper function of a government is to make it easy for people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.
  • Those who think must govern those who toil.
  • Economic history is a long record of government policies that failed because they were designed with a bold disregard for the laws of economics
  • A government by secrecy benefits no one. It injures the people it seeks to serve; it damages its own integrity and operation. It breeds distrust, dampens the fervor of its citizens and mocks their loyalty.
    • Senator Long, 1964
  • The Democrats' biggest foe isn't conservatives or the religious right, but their deep, ingrained assumption that human rationality will win the day over human nature.
  • Congress is so strange. A man gets up to speak and says nothing. Nobody listens and then everybody disagrees.
  • Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.
  • The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough government strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.
  • A government debt is a government claim against personal income and private property – an unpaid tax bill.
  • Voting is one of the few things where boycotting in protest clearly makes the problem worse rather than better.
  • The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.
  • I have no fear that the result of our experiment will be that men may be trusted to govern themselves without a master.
  • I know of no safe repository of the ultimate power of society but people. And if we think them not enlightened enough, the remedy is not to take the power from them, but to inform them by education.
  • The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Kershner quote edit

Latest comment: 4 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion

The quote by Howard Kershner, that When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare. is explicitly about government, namely, government excesses courtesy of the people, and belongs on this page. --1.136.110.84 00:29, 16 February 2020 (UTC)Reply

As I said, the quote needs to meet WQ:QUOTABILITY to stay. Rupert Loup 00:40, 16 February 2020 (UTC)
  1. Is the quote verifiably sourced? Yes
  2. Is the quote original to the author to whom or work to which it is being attributed? Yes
  3. Is the subject of the quote a notable subject? Is it about a broad theme of the human experience such as Love, Justice, or Loneliness? Or is it about a narrow or mundane topic, like porcupines, lunch meat, or that new car smell? If the quote is about a mundane topic, does the author have particular expertise on that topic? If the quote is about another person, is that other person highly notable? The subject of the quote is notable and broad in its theme.
  4. Is the author or work from which the quote comes notable? If so, are they very notable, moderately notable, barely notable? Are they notable as a source of quotes (i.e., as a poet, pundit, or Yogi Berra)? Kershner was a 20th-century economist
  5. Is the quote itself particularly witty, pithy, wise, eloquent, or poignant? It is witty and pithy
  6. Is the quote itself independently well known (as with proverbs and certain well-reported comments)? No
  7. Has the quote stood the test of time? Yes

6 out of 7 is not bad. It passes the test. --1.136.110.84 00:54, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

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