130 Bad Government Quotes

Following is our list of bad government quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about weak government.

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Famous Bad Government Quotes

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. — Ludwig von Mises

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. - Edmund Burke

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government. — Edmund Burke

Government is actually the worst failure of civilized man. — H. L. Mencken

No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion; it is an evil government. — Eric Hoffer

Everything government touches turns to crap. - Ringo Starr

Everything government touches turns to crap. — Ringo Starr

Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote. - George Jean Nathan

Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote. — George Jean Nathan

Government ... can't be trusted to control its own bureaucrats or collect taxes equitably or fill a pothole, much less decide which of its citizens to kill. — Helen Prejean

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. - Milton Friedman

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem. — Milton Friedman

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

A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must, in practice, be a bad government. — Joseph Story

Most of the poverty and misery in the world is due to bad government, lack of democracy, weak states, internal strife, and so on. — George Soros

Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government. — William Lyon Mackenzie King

Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government. — Mackenzie King

Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence. — Tom C. Clark

Government is not capable of caring. Government gets things done through coercion. They fine, they penalize, they tax, they confiscate, they jail, they bully to get what they want. — Rush Limbaugh

Short Bad Government Quotes

  • No government has received a worse inheritance than the one we are receiving. — Javier Milei
  • We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government. — William Howard Taft
  • Democracy virtually assures that only bad and dangerous men will ever rise to the top of government. — Hans-Hermann Hoppe
  • We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint. — William Howard Taft
  • In government, the scum rises to the top. — Friedrich August von Hayek
  • Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
  • Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected. — Malala Yousafzai
  • Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem. — Ronald Reagan
  • Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under. — H. L. Mencken
  • Our country is being run by incompetent people. — Donald Trump

Bad Government Image Quotes

Bad government quote One bad chapter does not mean your story is over.
One bad chapter does not mean your story is over.

Bad Government Political Quotes

To say that a bad government must be established for fear of anarchy is really saying that we should kill ourselves for fear of dying. — Richard Henry Lee

To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals. — Mark Twain

Tory governments are bad for Scotland. — Nicola Sturgeon

Bad government quote If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it cam
If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it came from.

The first task of the doctor is ... political: the struggle against disease must begin with a war against bad government." Man will be totally and definitively cured only if he is first liberated. — Michel Foucault

I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics. — Barack Obama

It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. — Calvin Coolidge

Bad government quote Persist to overcome. He that can't endure the bad, will not live to see the good.
Persist to overcome. He that can't endure the bad, will not live to see the good.

I cannot watch the city of Chicago be destroyed by petty politics and bad government. — Harold Washington

... the community suffers nothing very terrible if its cobblers are bad and become degenerate and pretentious; but if the Guardians of its laws and constitution, who alone have the opportunity to bring it good government and prosperity, become a mere sham, then clearly it is completely ruined. — Plato

Contrary to the prevailing notion that good governance is bad politics, in reality good governance is good politics. A government should work keeping in mind the welfare of future generations, not the next election. — Narendra Modi

The government is promoting bad behavior... do we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages... This is America! How many of you people want to pay for your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard — Rick Santelli

Weak Government Quotes

Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government. — Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action. — Ludwig von Mises

If a strong government finds that it can, with impunity, destroy a weak people, then the hour has struck for that weak people to appeal to the League of Nations to give its judgment in all freedom. God and history will remember your judgment. — Haile Selassie

Bad government quote Never regret a day in your life: good days give happiness, bad days give experience, worst days give
Never regret a day in your life: good days give happiness, bad days give experience, worst days give lessons, and best days give memories.

If the people are victorious against the government, the nation will be weak; if the government is victorious against the people, the military will have strength. [thus they] will have the means by which they may fight, and thus ascend to supremacy. — Shang Yang

I saw the government really using the excuse of a weak economy and a financial crisis to create more government and to push onto the American entrepreneurial society more and more restraints and government activity. — Rob Portman

The Establishment decided Thatcher's ideas were safer with a strong Blair government than with a weak Major government. We are given all these personalities to choose between to disguise the fact that the policies are the same. — Tony Benn

Bad government quote There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment
There is a battle of two wolves inside us all. One is evil. It is anger, jealousy, greed, resentment, lies, inferiority and ego. The other is good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, humility, kindness, empathy and truth. The wolf that wins? The one you feed.

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong. — Wendell L. Willkie

You can have a strong government and a weak people, or strong people and weak government, but you cannot have both. — Robert Ringer

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong. — Wendell Willkie

...the West's main weakness remains unchanged: it cannot grasp the fact that it is facing an acceleration in the unfolding of Soviet convergence strategy which is intended to procure the subservience of the West to Moscow under an ultimate Communist World Government. — Anatoliy Golitsyn

Evil Government Quotes

There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our constitution. — John Adams

Men must be aggressive for what is right if government is to be saved from men who are aggressive for what is wrong. — Robert M. La Follette, Sr.

The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil. — James Monroe

Bad government quote Don't let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.
Don't let a bad day make you feel like you have a bad life.

I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil. Government belongs wherever evil needs an adversary and there are people in distress. — Robert Kennedy

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. — Andrew Jackson

The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst. — J. Edgar Hoover

Bad government quote You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.
You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.

The chief evil is unlimited government, and nobody is qualified to wield unlimited power. — Friedrich August von Hayek

God knows that I detest slavery, but it is an existing evil, for which we are not responsible, and we must endure it, till we can get rid of it without destroying the last hope of free government in the world. — Millard Fillmore

The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible. — Rand Paul

Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness. — Thomas Paine

Good Government Quotes

I love peace and quiet, I hate politics and turmoil. We women are not made for governing, and if we are good women, we must dislike these masculine occupations. — Queen Victoria

While transparency reduces corruption, good governance goes beyond transparency in achieving openness. Openness means involving the stakeholders in decision-making process. Transparency is the right to information while openness is the right to participation. — Narendra Modi

Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance. — Kofi Annan

Bad government quote If you love deeply, you're going to get hurt badly. But it's still worth it.
If you love deeply, you're going to get hurt badly. But it's still worth it.

The United States government has always been proud of the welcome it has extended to good men of every nation, seeking freedom and homes and bread. — John Muir

Independence, the freedom of a self-governing nation, is in my estimation the highest political good, for which any disadvantage, if need be, and any sacrifice are a cheap price. — Enoch Powell

One of these days the people of Louisiana are going to get good government - and they aren't going to like it. — Huey Long

Bad government quote You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren't paying attention
You will have bad times, but they will always wake you up to the stuff you weren't paying attention to.

Only government can take perfectly good paper, cover it with perfectly good ink and make the combination worthless. — Milton Friedman

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do. — Voltaire

All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities. — James F. Cooper

There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters — Daniel Webster

Anti Government Quotes

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government. - Edward Abbey

The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government. — Edward Abbey

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. — Baron de Montesquieu

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson

Bad government quote If you want to be good at something, you must first be willing to be bad at it.
If you want to be good at something, you must first be willing to be bad at it.

Governments constantly choose between telling lies and fighting wars, with the end result always being the same. One will always lead to the other. — Thomas Jefferson

I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man. — Thomas Jefferson

I love my country, not my government. — Jesse Ventura

All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. — Frank Herbert

Human rights are not a privilege conferred by government. They are every human being's entitlement by virtue of his humanity. — Mother Teresa

The anti-slavery party contend that slavery is wrong in itself, and the Government is a consolidated national democracy. We of the South contend that slavery is right, and that this is a confederate Republic of sovereign States. — Laurence M. Keitt

In America, we have anti-nepotism laws in the federal government and in lots of state governments, because the practice of hiring relatives undermines public confidence that the government official is actually finding best person for the job. — Kathleen Clark

Bad Politics Quotes

A drug is not bad. A drug is a chemical compound. The problem comes in when people who take drugs treat them like a license to behave like an asshole. — Frank Zappa

All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures. — Julius Caesar

I don't think that the Left has a monopoly on bad ideas. I don't think the Right has a monopoly on good ideas. — James David Vance

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place. — Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

The social disease of political correctness has entered daily life, inverting good to bad and attempting to rewrite proud histories as an imposition of white supremacy for which we all should make contrition. — Robert Agostinelli

It's a tough world out there. You're going to prepare yourself for politics, bad bosses, hating employees - and usually when you're the absolute best, you get hated on the most. — Kanye West

There's bad apples in whatever way you want to group people - doesn't matter if it's religious, political or social. The big mistake is generalizing. — Charles de Lint

Dogs are great assets to candidates, and the feeling seems to be engendered that if a dog loves the candidate, he can't be all that bad. — Dick Gregory

A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures. — Daniel Webster

Building weapons that we don't need, don't work, and aren't necessary, and have no mission — that's not bad politics, that's robbery. — Paul Newman

People Writing About Bad Government

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by H. L. Mencken

H. L. Mencken
quotes on government, elections and death

913 7279
Read quotes by William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft

124 1425
Read quotes by Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises
quotes on socialism

541 3009
Read quotes by Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke
quotes on government, conservatism and history

494 3960
Read quotes by Eric Hoffer

Eric Hoffer
quotes on leadership, happiness and intelligence

581 4280
Read quotes by Ringo Starr

Ringo Starr
quotes on friendship, stars and love

132 389

More Bad Government Quotes

My mission is to lead the country out of a bad situation of corruption, depression and slavery. After I rid the country of these vices, I will then organize and supervise a general election of a genuinely democratic civilian government. — Idi Amin

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself. — Benjamin Franklin

Government is necessary, not because man is naturally bad... but because man is by nature more individualistic than social. — Thomas Hobbes

If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . . If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws. — Noah Webster

It was a bad idea, because I think that any government reorganization has to come in relatively small bites, or else you get indigestion. — Warren Rudman

A pure democracy is generally a very bad government, It is often the most tyrannical government on earth; for a multitude is often rash, and will not hear reason. — Noah Webster

The banking collapse was caused, more than anything, by bad government policy and the total failure of bad regulation, rather than by greed. — Nigel Farage

It is the aim of good government to stimulate production, of bad government to encourage consumption. — Jean-Baptiste Say

The Liberals talk about a stable government but we don't know how bad the stable is going to smell. — Tommy Douglas

I think trading Bitcoin while reading twitter is a bad idea. The news that governments expect you to pay your taxes and abide by existing laws should not be driving panic in the marketplace. The main stream interpretations are almost always the opposite of the true implication. — Michael Saylor

There can be no good character in civil government if there is none in the people. You cannot make a good omelet with bad eggs. — R.J. Rushdoony

I have come to believe that if two people are prepared to make a lifetime commitment to love and care for each other in good times and in bad, the government shouldn't deny them the opportunity to get married. — Rob Portman

The question is: how bad do things have to get before you will do something about it? Where is your line in the sand? If you don't enforce the constitutional limitations on your government very soon, you are likely to find out what World War III will be like. — Michael Badnarik

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. — G. K. Chesterton

Great men are almost always bad men. — Lord Acton

When the federal government spends more each year than it collects in tax revenues, it has three choices: It can raise taxes, print money, or borrow money. While these actions may benefit politicians, all three options are bad for average Americans. — Ron Paul

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of. — Confucius

With bad laws and good civil servants it's still possible to govern. But with bad civil servants even the best laws can't help. — Otto von Bismarck

Feudalism, serfdom, slavery — all tyrannical institutions, are merely the most vigorous kinds of rule, springing out of, and necessary to, a bad state of man. The progress from these is in all cases the same — less government. — Herbert Spencer

In adopting the republican form of government, I not only took it as a man does his wife, for better, for worse, but, what few men do with their wives, I took it knowing all its bad qualities. — Gouverneur Morris

In recent years, anyone in the government, certainly anyone in the FBI or the CIA, or recently, in again, Clint's film, In the Line of Fire, the main bad guy is the chief advisor to the president. — Charlton Heston

People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests. — James Bovard

A feeble executive implies a feeble execution of the government. A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must be, in practice, a bad government. — Alexander Hamilton

Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government. — Ambrose Bierce

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. — Thomas Jefferson

The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects. — Alexis de Tocqueville

One of the really positive things about minority government is that there is the necessity to broker policy positions. What happens is you get a hybrid of what a single party might do. And I don't think that is a bad thing. — Kathleen Wynne

You're a sovereign as a citizen. If you're not involved in your government, you're not doing your job. In the long run that's very bad for the Republic. — Michael Novak

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far, far from it, but there is no free lunch, as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble. — Arthur Laffer

When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one. — Benjamin Franklin

The most dangerous moment for a bad government is when it begins to reform. — Alexis de Tocqueville

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