Government is best which governs least — Thomas Paine
The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity. — Martin Van Buren
Republicans want smaller government for the same reason crooks want fewer cops; it's easier to get away with murder. — James Carville
The ideal Government of all reflective men, from Aristotle onward, is one which lets the individual alone - one which barely escapes being no government at all. — H. L. Mencken
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
Individual liberty depends upon keeping government under control. — Ronald Reagan
Simplify rules, regulations, and laws. Get government out of the business of micromanaging. — Edward O. Thorp
I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. — Grover Norquist
A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot - because the first leads inevitably to the second. — Harry Browne
It's not tyranny we desire; it's a just, limited, federal government. — Alexander Hamilton
The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people. — Andrew Johnson
Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. — Ronald Reagan
But I'm very libertarian in the sense that I believe in small government and, as a general rule, I don't believe in imposing values upon people. — Stephen Harper
Short Small Government Quotes
Government is not a solution to our problem government is the problem. — Ronald Reagan
Govern wisely, and as little as possible — Sam Houston
The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. — Thomas Jefferson
I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free. — John Tyler
An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty. — Eugene McCarthy
Small Government Image Quotes
The lion doesn't turn around when the small dog barks.
Small Freedom Quotes
At the beginning of a dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments. — Ibn Khaldun
Take Charge Of Your Financial Future. I believe investing small amounts each month in the stock market will give you financial freedom in the later years of your life. — Bo Sanchez
The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite. — Thomas Jefferson
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
A small nation, faced with the denial of its sovereignty — indeed, of its very existence — reminded us that the price of freedom is high but never so costly as the loss of freedom. — Ronald Reagan
Big Government is the small option: it's the guarantee of smaller freedom, smaller homes, smaller cars, smaller opportunities, smaller lives. — Mark Steyn
A garden was one of the few thing in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it grow, to tend it then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth offered a taste of freedom. — Nelson Mandela
One small positive thought in the morning can change you whole day.
Although we have the potential to experience the freedom of a butterfly, we mysteriously prefer the small and fearful cocoon of ego. — Pema Chodron
Only a small part of scientific progress has resulted from planned search for specific objectives. A much more important part has been made possible by the freedom of the individual to follow his own curiosity. — Irving Langmuir
The well being of democracies regardless of their type and status is dependent on one small technical detail: The right to vote. Everything else is secondary. — Jose Ortega y Gasset
We believe in individual initiative, personal responsibility, opportunity, freedom, small government, the Constitution. These principles, these American principles are key to getting our economy back to being successful and leading the world. — Mitt Romney
Federal Government Quotes
Does the government fear us? Or do we fear the government? When the people fear the government, tyranny has found victory. The federal government is our servant, not our master! — Thomas Jefferson
If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand. — Milton Friedman
The [Liberal] federal government's trouble is that they have a wishbone where they should have a backbone. — Tommy Douglas
Acknowledge all of your small victories. They will eventually add up to something great.
For over 20 years, the federal and provincial governments have made enormous efforts employing a variety of approaches in an attempt to stimulate Montreal's economy. — Kim Campbell
Expanding eligibility of family planning services to low-income women will maximize cost-savings to both federal and state governments, reduce the disparities in access to family planning services for low-income women, and decrease the incidence of abortion in the U.S — Rosa DeLauro
What the Idaho Health Freedom Act says is that the citizens of our state won't be subject to another federal mandate or turn over another part of their life to government control. — Butch Otter
One small crack does not mean you are broken, it means that you were put to the test and you didn't fall apart.
I've experienced first-hand the wonderful work organizations like J Bar J do for young people in Central Oregon and I am encouraged that the federal government is taking an active role in the Cascade Youth and Family Center. — Greg Walden
Among the popular and representative systems of government I do not approve of the federal system: it is too perfect; and it requires virtues and political talents much superior to our own. — Simon Bolivar
The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. — James Madison
The Social Security Act offers to all our citizens a workable and working method of meeting urgent present needs and of forestalling future need. It utilizes the familiar machinery of our Federal-State government to promote the common welfare and the economic stability of the Nation. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. — Mark Twain
It's better to have died a small child than to be a politician who gets caught in a scandal during a slow news month. — Lewis Grizzard
No one has ever made himself great by showing how small someone else is.
Never, never be afraid to do what's right, especially if the well-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society's punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way. — Martin Luther King
If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way
Give me the patience for the small things of life, courage for the great trials of life. Help me to do my best each day and then go to sleep knowing God is awake. — Voltaire
Illnesses do not come upon us out of the blue. They are developed from small daily sins against Nature. When enough sins have accumulated, illnesses will suddenly appear. — Hippocrates
I don't do great things. I do small things with great love. — Mother Teresa
It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and a plan of action. — Fidel Castro
Size Of Government Quotes
As in the case of California, the wolf is at the door of America and the present administration acts as if it's a pussycat. America cannot maintain the present entitlement programs and support a government this size and keep on living on a credit card. — Charlie Daniels
Before my tenure, people didn't seem to think that citizens had a right to limit the size of their government. — William Weld
No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. — Ronald Reagan
Be grateful for small things, big things, and everything in between. Count your blessings, not your problems.
Chinese are already more on board than we are. China is the only country that actually discussed in formal government documents how important it is to control the size of your populations if you’re going to limit emissions. — Paul R. Ehrlich
If you would govern a state of a thousand chariots (a small-to-middle-size state), you must pay strict attention to business, be true to your word, be economical in expenditure and love the people. — Confucius
Equality is of two kinds, numerical and proportional; by the first I mean sameness of equality in number or size; by the second, equality of ratios. — Aristotle
Dream Big. Start small. Act now.
The media has brainwashed the electorate to expect the government to do something. The best economic policy of any government is to do nothing but reduce the size of the government, reduce the size of the laws, and reduce the size of regulations. — Marc Faber
I lowered taxes in New York. I reduced the size of government in New York. I took a $2.4 billion deficit and turned it into a $3.2 billion surplus. And I reduced taxes over 23 times or 23 times. — Rudy Giuliani
If politicians stopped meddling with things they don't understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates. — Thomas Sowell
Our whole way of life today is dedicated to the removal of risk. Cradle to grave we are supported, insulated, and isolated from the risks of life - and if we fail, our government stands ready with Bandaids of every size. — Shirley Temple Black
Big Government Quotes
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
People say, 'The government couldn't carry out the September 11th attack, it's too big, they'd get caught!' They DID get caught! They're just counting on you to be dumb and to go along with it. — Alex Jones
History will judge societies and governments - and their institutions - not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless. — Cesar Chavez
If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't spent a night with a mosquito.
Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry. — Unknown Author
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. — Gerald R. Ford
The FBI has always supported big business and big government. — Leonard Peltier
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, by the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
Our corporate executives speculate with their shareholders’ assets because they get big personal rewards when they win—and even if they lose, they are often bailed out with public funds by obedient politicians. We privatize profit and socialize risk. — Edward O. Thorp
Big-government economics breeds crony capitalism. It's corrupt, anything but neutral, and a barrier to broad participation in prosperity. — Paul Ryan
Shouldn't someone tag Mr. Kennedy's bold new imaginative program with its proper age? Under the tousled boyish haircut is still old Karl Marx - first launched a century ago. There is nothing new in the idea of a Government being Big Brother. — Ronald Reagan
The big missing part of the jig-saw is to get the assembly back up and running here in Northern Ireland, to get shared government back in business, that is my objective, and we await the IRA statement to see if this will trigger a new dawn. — Peter Hain
Limited Government Quotes
Education is a weapon the effect of which is determined by the hands which wield it, by who is to be struck down. — Joseph Stalin
Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience. — John Locke
Make yourself sheep and the wolves will eat you. — Benjamin Franklin
If congress refuses to obey its own rules. If congress refuses to pass a balanced budget. If congress refuses to read the Bills. Then I say, sweep the place clean, limit their terms, and send them HOME! — Rand Paul
It must never be forgotten...that the liberties of the people are not so safe under the gracious manner of government as by the limitation of power. — Richard Henry Lee
The man who puts all the guns and all the decision-making power into the hands of the central government and then says, ‘Limit yourself’; it is he who is truly the impractical utopian. — Murray Rothbard
The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. — Thomas Jefferson
This I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. — John Steinbeck
If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one. — James Madison
Those (who) seek to establish systems of Government based on the regimentation of all Human Beings by a handful of individual rulers...call this a new order. It is not new and it is not order. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
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
The American citizen must be made aware that today a relatively small group of people is proclaiming its purposes to be the will of the People. That elitist approach to government must be repudiated. — William E. Simon
It is a matter of common knowledge that the government of South Carolina is under domination of a small ring of cunning, conniving men. — Strom Thurmond
Sometimes I find myself thinking, rather wistfully, about Lao Tzu's famous dictum: 'Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish.' All around me I see something very different, let us say - a number of angry dwarfs trying to grill a whale. — William Carlos Williams
A State divided into a small number of rich and a large number of poor will always develop a government manipulated by the rich to protect the amenities represented by their property. — Harold Laski
If you like small government you need to work hard at having a strong national defense that is not so militant. Personal liberty is the purpose of government, to protect liberty - not to run your personal life, not to run the economy, and not to pretend that we can tell the world how they ought to live. — Ron Paul
we estimate that more than 50 percent of all children with an ADHD diagnosis actually have a sleep disorder, yet a small fraction know of their sleep condition and its ramifications. A major public health awareness campaign by governments—perhaps without influence from pharmaceutical lobbying groups—is needed on this issue. — Matthew Walker
You bet every member of Congress who votes for this bill ought to read it, read it thoroughly, and understand that what we're looking at here amounts to nothing more than a government takeover of our health care economy, paid for with nearly a trillion dollars in new taxes on individuals and small businesses. And it must be opposed. — Mike Pence
It is time for conservatives to do what they do best and insist that a wasteful, inefficient government program gets off the books. Small government and the death penalty don't go together. — Christy Clark
Nothing can be more consoling to the man of God, than the conviction that the Lord who made the world governs the world; and that every event, great and small, prosperous and adverse, is under the absolute disposal of Him who doth all things well, and who regulates all things for the good of his people. — Jerry Bridges
Conservatives should question how the death penalty actually works in order to stay true to small government, reduction in wasteful spending, and respect for human life. — Jay Sekulow
[We are] no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men. — Woodrow Wilson
With all this consumer debt, business debt, government debt, smaller movements in interest rates have a magnified effect. a small movement can tip the boat. — Bill Gross
Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking. Center your country in the Tao and evil will have no power. Not that it isn't there, but you'll be able to step out of its way. Give evil nothing to oppose and it will disappear by itself. — Lao Tzu
Weighing benefits against costs is the way most people make decisions - and the way most businesses make decisions, if they want to stay in business. Only in government is any benefit, however small, considered to be worth any cost, however large. — Thomas Sowell
Great battles are really won before they are actually fought. To control our passions we must govern our habits, and keep watch over ourselves in the small details of everyday life. — John Lubbock
The rebel army in Libya is just like 1,000 guys in Toyota trucks. The world is asking the question; can 1000 anti-government guys in pick-up trucks with small arms, take over a country of millions? To which I say, ask the Teabaggers. — Bill Maher
A coup consists of the infiltration of a small but critical segment of the state apparatus, which is then used to displace the government from its control of the remainder. — Edward Luttwak
Small business people have gotten us out of nearly all modern recessions - not by waiting for others to fix things or turning to government, but rather by applying leadership, inventiveness, creativity and originality. — Oliver DeMille
There is no act too small, no act too bold. The history of social change is the history of millions of actions, small and large, coming together at critical points to create a power that governments cannot suppress. — Howard Zinn
Libertarians are believers in small government who really mean it -- no excuses, no exceptions. [For Libertarians], the excesses of government are their best recruiters. — Richard Brookhiser
The virtue of small government is that the mistakes are small as well...If you want to leave a nation you think is corrupt, inefficient, militaristic, oppressive, repressive, but you don't want to move to Canada or France, what do you do? Well, the way is through secession, where you could stay home and be where you want to be. — Kirkpatrick Sale
Power is not just for TV sets and charging mobile phones. This electricity is critical to the industrial development of this area. If there is electricity, small scale industry will grow. — Narendra Modi
There's no business that's too small for government to torture — John Stossel
Almost all systems of economic thought are premised on the idea of continued economic growth, which would be fine and dandy if we lived on an infinite planet, but there's this small, niggling, inconvenient fact that the planet is, in fact, finite, and that, unlike economic theory, it is governed by physical and biological reality — George Monbiot
Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it. — Lao Tzu
In the space business, space had gotten very much to be the aerospace industry. This is something that governments only do and it's where the Boeings and the Lockheed's and the Northrop's and so forth. And there's no way these small companies could do it. — Peter Diamandis
The extent to which we take everyday objects for granted is the precise extent to which they govern and inform our lives. — Margaret Visser
After adding trillions to the debt on big-government policies most Americans didn't ask for and which we couldn't afford, Democratic leaders say they need more money, which they intend to take from small business, even though small businesses create the majority of new jobs. — Mitch McConnell
A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person. — James Madison
Closing the gap for women entrepreneurs should be a priority for the federal government - and yet the Small Business Administration has failed in their promise to women business owners. — Ruben Hinojosa
The wonder is not that the world is so easily governed, but that so small a number of persons will suffice for the purpose. There are dead weights in political and legislative bodies as in clocks, and hundreds answer as pulleys who would never do for politicians. — William Gilmore Simms
If you owe $50, you're a delinquent account. If you owe $50,000, you're a small businessmen. If you owe $50 million, you're a corporation. If you owe $50 billion, you're the government. — Lynn Townsend White, Jr.
Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish, too much handling will spoil it. — Lao Tzu
Every good citizen should be willing to devote a brief time during some one day in the year, when necessary, to the making up of a listing of his income for taxes to contribute to his Government, not the scriptural tithe, but a small percentage of his net profits. — Cordell Hull
What other nations call religious toleration, we call religious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of governmental indulgence, but as rights, of which government cannot deprive any portion of citizens, however small. — Richard Mentor Johnson
It's no small irony that the government inevitably and invariably ends up promoting precisely that which they would most like to repress. — Jock Sturges
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether government works. — Barack Obama
In Conclusion
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