“The heart of government, coated with whatever velvet gloves you want to put on it, is a mailed fist of force and coercion.”

— Alan Keyes

Renew America rally in Orem, Utah, March 8, 2000. http://renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/00_03_08utah.htm. <br class="br">2000

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The heart of government, coated with whatever velvet gloves you want to put on it, is a mailed fist of force and coerci…" by Alan Keyes?

Alan Keyes62

American politician 1950

Related quotes

“Diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power.”

Robin Hobb (1952) American fiction writer (pseudonym)

“Responsible for wrapping the iron fist of authority in its velvet glove is Jane Axtell, head of the accountancy firm’s Human Resources department.”

Alain de Botton (1969) Swiss writer

Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009), p. 244.

“I slowly strangle my enemies with a velvet glove.”

Pietro Badoglio (1871–1956) Italian general during both World Wars and a Prime Minister of Italy

Io i miei nemici li strangolo lentamente col guanto di velluto.
Quoted in "Italienisch-ostafrika(1936-1941)"‎ - Page 18 - by Stefan Plenk - 2008

“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. Or to put it another way, government is society's dominant producer of coercion. The Mafia and independent bandits are merely fringe competitors — seeking to take advantage of the niches and nooks neglected by the government.”

Harry Browne (1933–2006) American politician and writer

Part One, chapter 2, page 12
1990s, Why Government Doesn't Work (1996)

“If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

1961, Address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Context: If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist-in economic, political, scientific and all the other kinds of struggles as well as the military-then the peril to freedom will continue to rise.