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.

There are three species of government: republican monarchical and despotic.

Our nation is built on the bedrock principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Americans no longer look to government for economic security rather they look to their portfolios.

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.

The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And of course sometimes the government confirms their opinion.

To hear some men talk of the government you would suppose that Congress was the law of gravitation and kept the planets in their places.

I have long believed taxpayers make better use of their money than the government ever could.

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.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.