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
Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people. — Henry Clay
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
Those who govern must see how the people react to administration. Ultimately, the people are the final arbiters. — Lal Bahadur Shastri
Bad officials are the ones elected by good citizens who do not vote. — George Jean Nathan
Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. — Grover Cleveland
A sign of development for a country is in the lack of prestige for government officials. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
The people are the government, administering it by their agents; they are the government, the sovereign power. — Andrew Jackson
Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it. — George Washington
The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity. — George Washington
All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out. — I. F. Stone
We are public servants. Like consumers, who come to us like kings. — Joko Widodo
The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party. — John C. Calhoun
Its sad that governments are chiefed by the double tongues. — Ten Bears
Public Officials Quotes
The chief internal enemies of any state are not spies nor saboteurs nor the paid agents of foreign governments. They are, on the contrary, those myriads of public officials who betray the trust imposed upon them by the people. — Dalton Trumbo
When elected officials abandon our environment and ruin our natural resources, public health is endangered. I know the importance of providing a clean environment for our children; I have attended more than one funeral for a child who has died from an asthma attack. — Gwen Moore
I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people except for a few public officials. — George Mason
Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.
I have made no secret, either privately or publicly, of any sense of outrage over officially enforced military and war service. I regard it as a duty of conscience to fight against such barbarous enslavement of the individual with every means available. — Albert Einstein
Significant officials at publicly traded companies are casually and cavalierly engaged in insider trading. Because insider trading has as one of its elements communication, it doesn't take rocket science to realize it's nice to have the communication on tape. — Preet Bharara
Corruption is uniquely reprehensible in a democracy because it violates the system's first principle, which we all learned back in the sunshiny days of elementary school: that the government exist to serve the public, not particular companies or individuals or even elected officials. — Thomas Frank
The government will one day be corrput and filled with liars and the people will flock to the one who tells the truth.
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
I've been asked about UFOs and I've said publicly I thought they were somebody else, some other civilization. — Gene Cernan
Public officials are permitted to finance or subsidize their own activities through taxes. That is, they are permitted to engage in and live off, what in private dealings between private law subjects is prohibited and considered 'theft' and 'stolen loot.' — Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary is facing at least two official objections to his public statements along with expensive hearings before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for expressing his biblical views on same sex marriage. — Stockwell Day
Elected Officials Quotes
Some politician some years ago said that bad officials are elected by good voters who do not vote. — Dwight D. Eisenhower
Long experience, in the United States and in other advanced economies, has demonstrated that monetary policy is most successful when decisions are rendered independent of influence by elected officials. — Jerome Powell
History has shown that a country most effectively speaks with one voice. When nationally elected officials work together, build consensus, and provide leadership, the American people will follow. — Chuck Hagel
Love your country, but never trust its government.
You read constantly that banks are lobbying regulators and elected officials as if this is inappropriate. We don't look at it that way. — Jamie Dimon
The principles behind explaining and educating the product or the elected official is similar, even though the actual execution of it is very, very different. — Frank Luntz
This commitment to truth is something one senses more and more Americans yearning for, just as they are becoming more and more sophisticated at knowing when the truth is being obscured - an irony that seems to elude most of todays elected officials. — Michael Musto
The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable.
Elected officials shouldn’t get to choose who gets to choose elected officials. — Lewis Black
[A politician is] a person skilled in the art of compromise. Usually an elected official who has compromised to get nominated, compromised to get elected, and compromised repeatedly to stay in office. — Dick Gregory
I honestly believe I'd make one of the worst elected officials in the history of this country. — Ross Perot
If something is being done on a secret basis in national security, that's a great reason for elected officials to not talk about it. And that's a great way to shirk accountability for it with the public. — Rachel Maddow
Government Employees Quotes
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
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 government's first duty is to protect the people.
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
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
Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinkng. They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.
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
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
Government Agencies Quotes
Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good. — Daniel Patrick Moynihan
What we had learned over time is that we could no longer communicate with government agencies. We actually couldn’t even communicate with our propagandized colleagues in major medical centers, all of which appear to be under a spell, almost as if they are hypnotized right now. — Peter A. McCullough
Many agencies write their own regulations, use in-house courts with administrative law judges against individuals, then dole out punishments that ruin their lives. — Vivek Ramaswamy
A free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them. Which would include their own government.
The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media. — William Colby
Unlike the world of today, where people are more or less at the mercy of credit agencies, large corporations, and governments, Chaum’s approach balances power between individuals and organizations. — Hal Finney
So what is government?... Very simply, it is an agency of coercion. Of course, there are other agencies of coercion - such as the Mafia. So to be more precise, government is the agency of coercion that has flags in front of its offices. — Harry Browne
If there is no justice for the people, there be no peace for the government.
Our government is an agency of delegated and strictly limited powers. Its founders did not look to its preservation by force; but the chain they wove to bind these States together was one of love and mutual good offices. — Jefferson Davis
Once wide coercive powers are given to government agencies… such powers cannot be effectively controlled. — Friedrich August von Hayek
If one defines the term 'dropout' to mean a person who has given up serious effort to meet his responsibilities, then every business office, government agency, golf club and university faculty would yield its quota. — John W. Gardner
If religious freedom is to endure in America, the responsibility for teaching religion to public school children must be left to the homes and churches of our land, where this responsibility rightfully belongs. It must not be assumed by the government through the agency of the public school system. — Sam Ervin
Government And Politics Quotes
What my campaign is about is a political revolution - millions of people standing up and saying, enough is enough. Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the hand full of billionaires. — Bernie Sanders
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
It is dangerous to be right in matters where established men are wrong. — Voltaire
The duty of a true patriot is to protect his country from government.
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
A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. — Edward R. Murrow
When plunder becomes a way of life, men create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it. — Frederic Bastiat
The duty of a true Patriot is to protect his country from its government.
Democracy has two excesses to avoid: the spirit of inequality, which leads to an aristocracy, or to the government of a single individual; and the spirit of extreme equality, which conducts it to despotism, as the despotism of a single individual finishes by conquest. — Baron de Montesquieu
Extreme taxation, excessive controls, oppressive government competition with business, frustrated minorities and forgotten Americans are not the products of free enterprise. They are the residue of centralized bureaucracy, of government by a self-anointed elite. — Ronald Reagan
Never was a government that was not composed of liars, malefactors and thieves. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
Now is the time to alter our government. Now is the time to stop the movement toward oligarchy. Now is the time to create a government which represents all Americans and not just the 1%... No more excuses. We must all become involved in the political process. — Bernie Sanders
I can concede that the government has no knowledge of the people, but I believe the people know less of the government. There are useless officials, evil, if you like, but there are also good ones, and these are not able to accomplish anything because they encounter an inert mass, the population that takes little part in matters that concern them. — Jose Rizal
Flushed with victory, the new interim Ukrainian government had immediately made some foolish statements, not least of which was the intention to abolish Russian as the official second language in various regions. — Tim Marshall
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
We will go to every part of Tamil Nadu and tell the people that Hindi is coming and that it is like a thunder strike on the heads of Tamil and Dravidian people.... If Hindi were to become the official language of India, Hindi-speaking people will govern us. We will be treated like third rate citizens — C. N. Annadurai
I think the country could be spared a lot of agony and the government could worry about inflation and a lot of other problems if [Nixon would] go on and resign. [There is] no question that an admission of making false statements to government officials and interfering with the FBI and the CIA is an impeachable offense. — William J. Clinton
The future success of the Marine Corps depends on two factors: first, an efficient performance of all duties to which its officers and men may be assigned; second, promptly bringing this efficiency to the attention of the proper officials of the government, and the American people. — John A. Lejeune
Hyperinflation can take virtually your entire life's savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all. — Thomas Sowell
The Europeans and Americans residing in the town of Zanzibar are either Government officials, independent merchants, or agents for a few great mercantile houses in Europe and America. — Henry Morton Stanley
Every time I travel, government TSA officials seem to recognize that I'm a Muslim and 'randomly' pull me aside for 'special treatment'. My sincere hope and prayer is that, on the Day of Judgment, my Lord's angels also recognize me as a Muslim and pull me aside for special treatment — Abu Ammaar Yasir Qadhi
But there will be no justice, there will be no government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as long as the government and its officials permit bribery in any form. — John Jay Hooker
The term propaganda rings melodramatic and exaggerated, but a press that—whether from fear, careerism, or conviction—uncritically recites false government claims and reports them as fact, or treats elected officials with a reverence reserved for royalty, cannot be accurately described as engaged in any other function. — Glenn Greenwald
If the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) raises the hackles of the conspiracy theorists, the Bilderberg meetings must induce apocalyptic visions of omnipotent international bankers plotting with unscrupulous government officials to impose cunning schemes on an ignorant and unsuspecting world. — David Rockefeller
Look, all administrations, all governments lie, all officials lie and nothing they say is to be believed. That's a pretty good rule. — Daniel Ellsberg
Contrary to popular opinion, the Constitution was not - and is not - a grant of rights to the citizenry. Instead, the Constitution is a "barbed-wire entanglement" designed to interfere with, restrict, and impede government officials in the exercise of political power. — Jacob G. Hornberger
Ours is a government of checks and balances. The Mafia and crooked businessmen make out checks, and the politicians and other compromised officials improve their bank balances. — Steve Allen
Unfortunately for many Aboriginal people, of course, they've been in the situation of being herded on government reserves. Their own responsibility's been assumed by Protectors of Aborigines and by government officials and if you become part of that system, it's always difficult to break out of it. — Lowitja O'Donoghue
These international bankers and Rockefeller Standard Oil interests control the majority of newspapers and the columns of these papers to club into submission or drive out of public office officials who refuse to do the bidding of the powerful corrupt cliques which compose the invisible government. — Theodore Roosevelt
If every head of state and every government official spent an hour a day reading poetry we'd live in a much more humane and decent world. — Mark Strand
There is something deeply hypocritical in a society that holds an inner-city child only eight years old "accountable" for her performance on a high-stakes standardized exam but does not hold the high officials of our government accountable for robbing her of what they gave their own kids six or seven years before. — Jonathan Kozol
When governments and other vested interests attack me personally I usually regard it as a vindication, otherwise they would use facts. That's why I believe in the wonderful Claud Cockburn dictum, 'Never believe anything until it is officially denied.' It has certainly been my experience. — John Pilger
Nothing short of a federal investigation can begin to disclose the abuses which have woven a fine web of mutually implicating relationships between businessmen and government officials. — Ralph Nader
Neither federal nor state government acts compatibly with equal protection when a law or official policy denies to women, simply because they are women, full citizenship stature - equal opportunity to aspire, achieve, participate in and contribute to society based on their individual talents and capacities. — Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Morality in government begins with officials using words as honestly as possible to describe the truth. — David Gergen
Officials of governments that use or produce landmines should be forced to see the reality of how landmines hurt people and make them suffer, because this would surely make them stop. — Jackie Chan
The great Way is easy, yet people prefer the side paths. Be aware when things are out of balance. Stay centered within the Tao. When rich speculators prosper While farmers lose their land; when government officials spend money on weapons instead of cures; when the upper class is extravagant and irresponsible while the poor have nowhere to turn- all this is robbery and chaos. It is not in keeping with the Tao. — Lao Tzu
Governments first of all have been able to amass, through the taxation process, large sums of capital which they have redistributed to persons or groups, already large holders of capital, through official subsidies. — Immanuel Wallerstein
The White House - now shares the same name as the new government center in Moscow. The name originally comes from Egypt. The White and Red Houses of the late first dynasty were departments that officiated for the will of pharaoh. The second most important state building in Egypt was the treasury. It was known as Per Hetch, meaning "White House." — Michael Tsarion
The official language of the State of Illinois shall be known hereafter as the American language, and not the English language. — Frank Church
I believe that a guarantee of public access to government information is indispensable in the long run for any democratic society.... if officials make public only what they want citizens to know, then publicity becomes a sham and accountability meaningless. — Sissela Bok
Almost no one will accept responsibility for his or her role in precipitating a crisis: not leveraged speculators, not willfully blind leaders of financial institutions, and certainly not regulators, government officials, ratings agencies or politicians. — Seth Klarman
The seemingly omnipresent storm clouds hanging over the Constitution often make it hard to find a silver lining. Every day, the front page of The Drudge Report is littered with stories of government assaults on our civil liberties - from local government officials all the way up to the Oval Office. — Bob Barr
Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. Not only is their time and labor due to the government, but they should scrupulously avoid in their political action, as well as in the discharge of their official duty, offending by a display of obtrusive partisanship their neighbors who have relations with them as public officials. — Grover Cleveland
The extortions and oppressions of government will go on so long as such bare fraudulence deceives and disarms the victims; so long as they are ready to swallow the immemorial official theory that protesting against the stealings of the archbishop's secretary's nephew's mistress' illegitimate son is a sin against the Holy Ghost. — H. L. Mencken
The Constitution does not protect the sovereignty of States for the benefit of the States or state governments as abstract political entities, or even for the benefit of the public officials governing the States. To the contrary, the Constitution divides authority between federal and state governments for the protection of individuals. — Sandra Day O'Connor
There are two parties involved in every corrupt transaction, typically a government official and a business person. Yet those who pay bribes are often depicted as innocent victims ... The reality is that both parties conspire to defraud the public. — Lynda Chalker, Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
If the test of patriotism comes only by reflexively falling into lockstep behind the leader whenever the flag is waved, then what we have is a formula for dictatorship, not democracy... But the American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country. — Michael Parenti
The U.S. government officials lie when they talk about human rights. They're a bunch of hypocrites and liars.
You can't take it seriously. — Eqbal Ahmad
At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. — Louis D. Brandeis
Of all the inventions that have helped to unify China perhaps the airplane is the most outstanding. Its ability to annihilate distance has been in direct proportion to its achievements in assisting to annihilate suspicion and misunderstanding among provincial officials far removed from one another or from the officials at the seat of government. — Madame Chiang KaiShek
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