117 Responsible Government Quotes
Following is our list of responsible government quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about government responsibility.
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Famous Responsible Government Quotes
The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The essence of good government is trust. — Kathleen Sebelius
The responsibility of a minister is to step aside when there is a criminal investigation of the department. That protects the propriety of Parliament and of responsible government. — Jack Layton
We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint. — William Howard Taft
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
Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force...Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action. — George Washington
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
No government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws. — Thaddeus Stevens
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. — Henry David Thoreau
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves. — Thomas Jefferson
That government is best which governs least. — Henry David Thoreau
Government is best which governs least — Thomas Paine
A government is just only when the whole people share equally in its protection and advantages. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people. — Thomas Jefferson
Government itself is founded upon the great doctrine of the consent of the governed, and has its cornerstone in the memorable principle that men are endowed with inalienable rights. — Leland Stanford
Short Responsible Government Quotes
- Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed — Walter E. Williams
- It is the essence of responsibility to put the public good ahead of personal gain — Robert Kennedy
- Individual liberty depends upon keeping government under control. — Ronald Reagan
- We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility. — Kwame Nkrumah
- A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to conciliate with dignity. — George Grenville
- For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. — Jonathan Swift
- A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody. — Thomas Paine
Top 10 Responsible Government Quotes
No responsibility of government is more fundamental than the responsibility of maintaining the highest standard of ethical behavior for those who conduct the public business. — John F. Kennedy
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other. — Ronald Reagan
In a free society, government has the responsibility of protecting us from others, but not from ourselves. — Walter E. Williams
How the American right managed to convince itself that the programs to alleviate poverty are responsible for the consequences of poverty will someday be studied as a notorious mass illusion. — Molly Ivins
Globalisation makes it clear that social responsibility is required not only of governments, but of companies and individuals. All sources must interact in order to reach the MDGs. — Anna Lindh
Family responsibility, yes, and always. Family bankruptcy due to the cruel rules of government, no. — Barbara Mikulski
When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves. — George Pataki
Our Jewish friends are no more responsible for the actions of Israel or the Netanyahu government than our Muslim friends are for those of various self-styled Islamic states or organisations. — Jeremy Corbyn
The only thing I believe is individual responsibility doesn't mean the government is the answer to ever fear and every problem every individual has. We are the masters of our own destiny. — Sean Hannity
Terrorism is a direct response to the crimes our government has committed against foreigners (besides which, the actual terrorists are within our own government) — Gore Vidal
Responsibility Quotes
Accept responsibility for your life. Know that it is you who will get you where you want to go, no one else. — Les Brown
Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility. — Sigmund Freud
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. — Plato
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. — Viktor E. Frankl
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. — Charles Darwin
There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them. — Denis Waitley
A society with too few independent thinkers is vulnerable to control by disturbed and opportunistic leaders. A society which wants to create and maintain a free and democratic social system must create responsible independence of thought among its young. — John Dewey
The fidelity of a dog is a precious gift demanding no less binding moral responsibilities than the friendship of a human being. — Konrad Lorenz
The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond. — Robert Baden-Powell
Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. — John F. Kennedy
Government Responsibility Quotes
Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile. — William Lyon Mackenzie King
For years now I have been talking about personal responsibility and accountability, both in our private lives and in the halls of government. Those are important principles here in Idaho, and they will form the basis of this administration. — Butch Otter
Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government. — Carrie Chapman Catt
You are responsible for the world that you live in. It is not government's responsibility. It is not your school's or your social club's or your church's or your neighbor's or your fellow citizen's. It is yours, utterly and singularly yours. — August Wilson
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
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
So if Arizona sees the federal government isn't assuming its responsibilities, it creates local laws. But migration and keeping security on the borders is not a local or state issue, it's a federal issue. — Vicente Fox
I was criticized at some level within the Republican Party by those who say government should not be in the economic development business at all. My response is that the only country I know that doesn't have an economic development plan is Papa New Guinea. — Jon Huntsman, Jr.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the responsible use of marijuana by adults and it should be of no interest or concern to the government. They have no business knowing whether we smoke or why we smoke. — Keith Stroup
In the end, there is no absence of irony: the integrity of what is sacred to Native Americans will be determined by the government that has been responsible for doing everything in its power to destroy Native American cultures. — Winona LaDuke
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
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
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
Role Of Government Quotes
The only possible role that I can see for reconciliation would be to make modest changes in the major package to improve affordability, to deal with what share of Medicaid expansion the federal government pays, those kinds of issues, which is the traditional role for reconciliation in health care. — Kent Conrad
While microeconomics has focused on transactions between individuals, and macroeconomics on the role of government in the economy, the reality is that the most important economic decisions to any individual’s well-being are the ones they conduct in their trade-offs with their future self. — Saifedean Ammous
Migration - whether emigration or return - at the micro level is an individual choice, and government both at the Centre and the states have role only to facilitate the decision of the individuals. — Vayalar Ravi
A corporation's primary goal is to make money. Government's primary role is to take a big chunk of that money and give it to others. — Larry Ellison
And I don't think that government has a role in telling people how to live their lives. Maybe a minister does, maybe your belief in God does, maybe there's another set of moral codes, but I don't think government has a role. — Clarence Thomas
The essential role of government is to create the conditions under which people can live fulfilling lives. — Martha C. Nussbaum
I believe one of the main roles of Government is to keep our economy free and fair. — Liz Truss
The Supreme Court and courts in general have been usurping the role of the legislative branch of government. — Todd Akin
I clearly believe a lot more than some of my coalition colleagues - Tories - in redistribution and using the tax system for that purpose. I also believe in the government having an active role in the economy, which is having an industrial strategy. I'm not a believer in laissez-faire. — Vince Cable
To suggest that Quebecers willingly give up the chance to exercise fully their influence within the federal government would be to betray the historical role Quebec has always played in Confederation, and to undermine the legitimacy of their pride and ambitions. — Kim Campbell
People Writing About Responsible Government
More Responsible Government Quotes
Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom, and justice, equality of opportunity in industry, in labor unions, schools and colleges, government, politics, and before the law. There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties, or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom. — A. Philip Randolph
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today. — Theodore Roosevelt
The Press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of the government and inform the people. Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government. And paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people. — Hugo Black
The courage we need is not the fortitude to be obedient in the service of an unjust war, to help conceal lies, to do our job for a boss who has usurped power and is acting as an outlaw government. It is the courage at last to face honestly the truth and reality of what we are doing in the world and act responsibly to change it. — Daniel Ellsberg
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
Labour has the responsibility to give a lead where the government will not. We need to bring people together, hold the government to account, oppose austerity and set out a path to exit that will protect jobs and incomes. — Jeremy Corbyn
The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility and out of self-interest for himself, his family, and the future of his country to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state. — Ron Paul
Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. — Theodore Roosevelt
A republic is not an easy form of government to live under, and when the responsibility of citizenship is evaded, democracy decays and authoritarianism takes over. — Earl Warren
Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems - the kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others. — Star Parker
Republicans should simply focus on first principles and give the American people what they want - an honest party dedicated to common sense, fiscal responsibility and limited government. If we govern to save the country, we'll do well as a party. — Tom Coburn
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
Taking a man's money without his consent, is also as much robbery, when it is done by millions of men, acting in concert, and calling themselves a government, as when it is done by a single individual, acting on his own responsibility, and calling himself a highwayman. — Lysander Spooner
We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and individual responsibility. — Paul Ryan
The quality of education today decides the tomorrow of Gujarat... Government may build schools, but the future can be built by the schools only. The key responsibility of building Gujarat's tomorrow thus lies with the schools. — Narendra Modi
I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more. — Clint Eastwood
Fiscal responsibility and government reform are going to be good themes for governing, well at any time, but particularly coming out of a recovery. — Bob McDonnell
I stand for limited government, fiscal responsibility, personal freedom, personal responsibility, so the Republican Party will support me. — Rick Scott
Initiative and referendum make government more responsive to its citizens, neutralize the power of the special interests and stimulate public involvement in state issues. — George W. Bush
You have given me a great responsibility: to stay close to you, to be worthy of you and to exemplify what you are. — Jimmy Carter
It`s all part of the pattern. This is a story of scandal and corruption, investigations, refusals to take responsibility. If this government continues in office, this will continue. — Stephen Harper
The Supreme Court, of course, has the responsibility of ensuring that our government never oversteps its proper bounds or violates the rights of individuals. But the Court must also recognize the limits on itself and respect the choices made by the American people. — Elena Kagan
As Mayor, I have a responsibility to ensure city government is making life better for all Angelenos, especially those whose past hard work laid the foundation for the city we enjoy today. Whether someone is born here, or comes here for college, career, or retirement, I want L.A. to be a place that welcomes all generations. — Eric Garcetti
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