“No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!”
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Ronald Reagan 264
American politician, 40th president of the United States (i… 1911–2004Related quotes
2000s
Source: Nature of Man and His Government (1959), p. 73
“Now, where did we ever get the idea that there is such a thing as 'good government?'”
That is a contradiction in terms as ridiculous as 'constructive rape.'
p. 14
Good Government: Hope or Illusion? (1978)
“No government as such is ever in favor of the freedom of the individual.”
197
1940s–present, Minority Report : H.L. Mencken's Notebooks (1956)
Context: Government, like any other organism, refuses to acquiesce in its own extinction. This refusal, of course, involves the resistance to any effort to diminish its powers and prerogatives. There has been no organized effort to keep government down since Jefferson's day. Ever since then the American people have been bolstering up its powers and giving it more and more jurisdiction over their affairs. They pay for that folly in increased taxes and diminished liberties. No government as such is ever in favor of the freedom of the individual. It invariably seeks to limit that freedom, if not by overt denial, then by seeking constantly to widen its own functions.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, radio address (March 2, 1930); reported in Public Papers of Governor Roosevelt (1930), p. 710.
1930s
“In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs for ever and ever.”
The Soul of Man Under Socialism (1891)