96 Civil Servants Quotes

Following is our list of civil servants quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about civil service.

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Famous Civil Servants Quotes

After a time, civil servants tend to become no longer servants and no longer civil. — Winston Churchill

A civil servant is sometimes like a broken cannon - it won't work and you can't fire it. — George S. Patton

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

Britain has invented a new missile. It's called the civil servant - it doesn't work and it can't be fired. — Walter Walker

Public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation. — Margaret Chase Smith

The State, in choosing men to serve it, takes no notice of their opinions. If they be willing faithfully to serve it, that satisfies. — Oliver Cromwell

We are public servants. Like consumers, who come to us like kings. — Joko Widodo

you can always tell employees of the government by the total vacancy which occupies the space where most other people have faces. — John Kennedy Toole

Whether elected or appointed, public officials serve those who put and keep them in office. We cannot depend upon them to fight our battles. — Charles Hamilton Houston

Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. — Grover Cleveland

Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it. — George Washington

Public service is my motto. — Al Capone

Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one. — Herbert Hoover

An honest public servant can't become rich in politics. He can only attain greatness and satisfaction by service. — Harry S. Truman

In government, the scum rises to the top. - Friedrich August von Hayek

In government, the scum rises to the top. — Friedrich August von Hayek

Short Civil Servants Quotes

  • A public office is not a job, it is an opportunity to do something for the public. — Franklin Knight Lane
  • Every post is honourable in which a man can serve his country. — George Washington
  • Any civilized administration, however organized, prefers its own good to that of the people. — Charles Fourier
  • In free governments the rulers are the servants, and the people their superiors and sovereigns. — Benjamin Franklin
  • Responsibility without power, the fate of the secretary through the ages. — Ariel Dorfman
  • There's no greater challenge and there is no greater honor than to be in public service. — Condoleezza Rice
Civil servants quote Thousands of tired, never-shaken, over civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the
Thousands of tired, never-shaken, over civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountain is going home, that wilderness is a necessity.

Retirement Quotes

Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Before you criticize, wait. Before you pray, forgive. Before you quit, try. Before you retire, save. Before you die, give. — William Arthur Ward

The Eucharist is a fire that inflames us, that, like lions breathing fire, we may retire from the altar being made terrible to the devil. — Saint John Chrysostom

Life's opportunities never end. God designed you to be a continual learner, a continual doer, a continual explorer and a continual giver. He never authorized a 'retirement age' from those pursuits! — Paula White

Civil servants quote Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.
Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock.

Somebody has to do something, and it's just incredibly pathetic that it has to be us. — Jerry Garcia

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them. - Louis Armstrong

Musicians don't retire; they stop when there's no more music in them. — Louis Armstrong

If you take care of the small things, the big things take care of themselves. You can gain more control over your life by paying closer attention to the little things. — Emily Dickinson

Civil servants quote I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.
I believe empathy is the most essential quality of civilization.

This is the greatest thing about sports - you play to win the game. Hello? You don't play to just play it. When you start telling me it doesn't matter, then retire, get out, because it matters. — Herman Edwards

Let love lead your soul. Make it a place to retire to, a kind of monastery cave, a retreat for the deepest core of your being. — Farid al-Din Attar

At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don't care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven't been thinking of us at all. — Ann Landers

Faithful servants never retire. You can retire from your career, but you will never retire from serving God. — Rick Warren

Civil Service Quotes

My father was in the civil service. I can remember standing in a bus shelter in the pouring rain, and that we were allowed candy floss at the end of the holiday if we had behaved. — Honor Blackman

Be civil to all; serviceable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none. — Benjamin Franklin

The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal. — G. W. F. Hegel

Civil servants quote Laughter ... the most civilized music in the world.
Laughter ... the most civilized music in the world.

The true courage of civilized nations is readiness for sacrifice in the service of the state, so that the individual counts as only one amongst many. The important thing here is not personal mettle but aligning oneself with the universal. — Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Civilization is a process in the service of Eros, whose purpose is to combine single human individuals, and after that families, then races, peoples and nations, into one great unity, the unity of mankind. Why this has to happen, we do not know; the work of Eros is precisely this. — Sigmund Freud

The taxpayer -- that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. — Ronald Reagan

Civil servants quote And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach.

What are you doing for others? — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil servants and priests, soldiers and ballet-dancers, schoolmasters and police constables, Greek museums and Gothic steeples, civil list and services list -- the common seed within which all these fabulous beings slumber in embryo is taxation. — Karl Marx

We did not lack for religious leaders to urge us into "godly" war [...]. All of this was part of a well-financed propaganda campaign on the part of British agents. As usual, the government of the United States was being "run" by the British Secret Intelligence Service. — Eustace Mullins

Lord Rothschild had access to all manner of leaders and experts. He was responsible only to the Prime Minister and answerable to neither the electorate nor the civil service chiefs. — Derek Wilson

Government Employees Quotes

Today, as in the Gilded Age, we live in a world where a morality of personal responsibility rubs shoulders with a culture of greed and of flagrant social irresponsibility. Now as then, business has shed its collective responsibility for employees - just as government has for its citizens. — Charles Derber

A network marketing business is based upon the leaders pulling people up, while a traditional corporate or government business is based upon only promoting a few and keeping the masses of employees content with a steady paycheck. — Robert Kiyosaki

The sheer number of government employees and welfare recipients effectively transforms the purpose of government from maintaining order to confiscating as much as possible from vulnerable taxpayers. — James Bovard

Civil servants quote In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.
In civilized life, law floats in a sea of ethics.

Only to bureaucrats can the idea occur that establishing new offices, promulgating new decrees, and increasing the number of government employees alone can be described as positive and beneficial measures. — Ludwig von Mises

I obtained confidential information in the same way government employees did, and I did it all without even touching a computer. ... I was so successful with this line of attack that I rarely had to go towards a technical attack. — Kevin Mitnick

I am not a federal employee. I am a constitutional officer. My job is the Constitution of the United States, I am not a government employee. I am in the Constitution. — Tom DeLay

Civil servants quote There is no civil nor religios law, that has broken, nor can break the bond of fraternity which natu
There is no civil nor religios law, that has broken, nor can break the bond of fraternity which nature has established between men.

It's my father's legacy. My father's view was that the public is the employer of these government employees and has the right to know what they're up to. — Jack Anderson

The time has come to tell the truth about the corruption of the government employee unions in this country. — Newt Gingrich

My personal view is that nobody should stand between an employer and employee when it comes to employment contract negations. Not the government and not meddlesome third parties. This includes the ability for individuals to bargain collectively with their employers. — Mark Noble

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

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George Washington
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quotes on leadership, success and history

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Read quotes by George S. Patton

George S. Patton
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Read quotes by Otto von Bismarck

Otto von Bismarck
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Read quotes by Margaret Chase Smith

Margaret Chase Smith
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Read quotes by Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell
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More Civil Servants Quotes

God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls. — Roger Williams

I like the evening in India, the one magic moment when the sun balances on the rim of the world, and the hush descends, and ten thousand civil servants drift homeward on a river of bicycles, brooding on the Lord Krishna and the cost of living. — James Cameron

My mom was a nurse, and my dad worked in the Health Ministry as a civil servant. When I was 6 years old, my dad got a job at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canada, so we moved there. — Chamath Palihapitiya

There are very many characteristics which go into making a model civil servant. Prominent among them are probity, industry, good sense, good habits, good temper, patience, order, courtesy, tact, self-reliance, many deference to superior officers, and many consideration for inferiors. — Chester A. Arthur

As a consequence of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, the officer corps of the old army became part of this class, as did that part of the younger generation who, in the old Germany, would have become officers or civil servants. — Gustav Stresemann

The film of tomorrow will not be directed by civil servants of the camera, but by artists for whom shooting a film constitutes a wonderful and thrilling adventure. — Francois Truffaut

Malaysians, during the colonial period, were not given the top positions: we were always subordinate. Fortunately for us, the people who took over were mainly civil servants: people who were serving the Government. — Mahathir Mohamad

A president is a high-level official who is elected to carry out a function. He is not a king, not a god. He is not the witch doctor of a tribe who knows everything. He is a civil servant. I think the ideal way of living is to live like the vast majority of people whom we attempt to serve and represent. — Jose Mujica

It is essential for men of science to take an interest in the administration of their own affairs or else the professional civil servant will step in - and then the Lord help you. — Ernest Rutherford

Technological civilization... rests fundamentally on power-driven machinery which transcends the physical limits of its human directors, multiplying indefinitely the capacity for the production of goods. Science in all its branches - physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology - is the servant and upholder of this system — Charles A. Beard

I'm a statistic in a system that a civil servant dominates. — Billy Joel

Temporary teams of trusted people are generally sent to all Departments and to major agencies of government to assist in planning and to acquaint the incoming administration with the civil servants and bureaucracy that will remain in place in the new Administration. — Richard V. Allen

The priest is not and must not be a civil servant of the Church. Above all the priest is a man who lives for the spirit for God. This being the case the Seminary is the place where he learns 'to be with Him.' — Pope John Paul II

In Downing Street they called me 'Boss'. Civil servants would always call me 'Prime Minister'. — Tony Blair

They tend to be civil servants, often diplomats drawn from the Foreign Office, who may be very pleasant, intelligent people, but once they get inside the Palace they're riveted to the status quo and they lose track of public opinion in the real world. — Anthony Holden

Colonial governors and senior civil servants are not easy people to argue with, and I was not popular because of my criticism of the colonial service in Kenya. — Louise Leakey

Give a civil servant a good case and he'll wreck it with clichés, bad punctuation, double negatives, and convoluted apology. — Alan Clark

Colonial governors and senior civil servants are not easy people to argue with, and I was not popular because of my criticism of the colonial service in Kenya. — Louis Leakey

The civil servant is primarily the master of the short-term solution. — Indira Gandhi

It is the triumph of civilization that at last communities have obtained such a mastery over natural laws that they drive and control them. The winds, the water, electricity, all aliens that in their wild form were dangerous, are now controlled by human will, and are made useful servants. — Henry Ward Beecher

It's the most rewarding thing to be a civil servant. — Sargent Shriver

My father was a civil servant, so having a regular job, being respectable is a big deal for me. Respectable in the sense that I support my family. That's what I mean by respectability. — Hanif Kureishi

In a mature society, 'civil servant' is semantically equal to 'civil master.' — Robert A. Heinlein

Socialism would gather all power to the supreme party and party leaders, rising like stately pinnacles above their vast bureaucracies of civil servants no longer servants, no longer civil. — Winston Churchill

Not all civil servants admire strong political leadership. But if you want to change things for the better you need strong political leadership. — Harriet Harman

In a massive, long-term study of 17,000 civil servants, an almost unbelievable conclusion emerged: the status of a person's job was more likely to predict their likelihood of a heart attack than obesity, smoking or high blood pressure. — Matt Ridley

A civil servant doesn't make jokes. — Eugene Ionesco

I don't think Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump really have friends. But Trump has openly admired Putin for many years, with no reservations. He even seems to idolize him. Neither his cabinet appointees nor the civil servants in the Pentagon and the State Department feel the same way, however, so we don't know what this admiration will bring. — Anne Applebaum

The Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers are one team. The Cabinet Ministers and the State Ministers are another team. The Civil Servants at the Centre and the States are yet another team. This is the only way we can successfully develop India. — Narendra Modi

I was under the librarians' protection. Civil servants and servants of civility, they had my back. The would be whatever they needed to be that day: information professionals, teachers, police, community organizers, computer technicians, historians, confidantes, clerks, social workers, storytellers, or, in this case, guardians of my peace. — Sayings

Not only had he lost the only girl he'd ever loved, he'd lost her in duplicate, like some heartbroken but highly efficient civil servant. — Tom Holt

There is a human capital crisis in the federal government. Not only are we losing the decades of talent as civil servants retire, we are not doing enough to develop and nurture the next generation of public servants. — Daniel Akaka

My father was a civil servant, fairly sort of middle ranking, low to middle ranking. He worked almost entirely in what was then called Administrative Labour, dealing with employment and unemployment issues. — John Hume

In the 1940s, traveling for an African was a complicated process. All Africans over the age of sixteen were compelled to carry 'Native passes' issued by the Native Affairs Department and were required to show that pass to any white policeman, civil servant, or employer. Failure to do so could mean arrest, trial, a jail sentence or fine. — Nelson Mandela

It's always pretty dark. It's not a farce, this is Homeland. Throughout six seasons, we've been trying to understand what it's like to be a civil servant, and the cost involved, and it's big. A lot of these people make profound sacrifices, and are very isolated and estranged from the people they love. That's a reality. — Claire Danes

Economists who studied in the '80s tend to have a pretty crude neoclassical view that's just about freeing up prices and markets, and then you'll get the growth and everybody benefits. And they'll just repeat that, because if you're a minister or a senior civil servant, you don't have time to read anything anymore. You get very fixed in your views. — Duncan Green

The president doesn't get an automatic pay raise, so they can't freeze it for him. But it also does extend the pay rate - they pay increases or pay freeze for pay increases for members of Congress. They've had a pay freeze since 2009, but most civil servants will see a small pay bump in 2016 thanks to a separate order from President Obama. — Susan Davis

Some civil servants are neither servants nor civil. — Winston Churchill

Never had there been such an attempt to make conquest the servant of civilization. About keeping India there is no question. England has a real duty there. — Goldwin Smith

The hundred-point man is one who is true to every trust; who keeps his word; who is loyal to the firm that employs him; who does not listen for insults nor look for slights; who carries a civil tongue in his head; who is polite to strangers without being fresh; who is considerate toward servants; who is moderate in his eating and drinking; who is willing to learn; who is cautious and yet courageous. — Elbert Hubbard

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