A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have.
Barry Goldwater

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.
Barry Goldwater

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?
Will Rogers

Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.
Richard Lamm

Democracy gives every man the right to be his own oppressor.
James Russell Lowell

Democracy is an abuse of statistics.
Jorge Luis Borges

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.
H. L. Mencken

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.
Sydney J. Harris

Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists.
John Kenneth Galbraith

Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.
P. J. O'Rourke

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery.
Jonathan Swift

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
P. J. O'Rourke

Government is an unnecessary evil. Human beings, when accustomed to taking responsibility for their own behavior, can cooperate on a basis of mutual trust and helpfulness.
Fred Woodworth

Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington

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

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.
William E. Gladstone

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.
Alexander Woollcott

If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con' what is the opposite of 'progress'?
Paul Harvey

If human beings are fundamentally good, no government is necessary; if they are fundamentally bad, any government, being composed of human beings, would be bad also.
Fred Woodworth

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.
James Madison