“"We the people" tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us. "We the people" are the driver, the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which "We the people" tell the government what it is allowed to do. "We the people" are free.”
1980s, Second term of office (1985–1989), Farewell Address (1989)
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Ronald Reagan 264
American politician, 40th president of the United States (i… 1911–2004Related quotes

The management philosophy here really is to give people enough rope to hang themselves. We hire people to tell us what to do. That's what we pay them for.
1990s
Source: Steve Jobs, 1996, Fresh Air radio interview by Terry Gross, npr.org http://www.npr.org/2011/10/06/141115121/steve-jobs-computer-science-is-a-liberal-art, audio 26:30/31:05
Source: Steve Jobs 1982, interview in InfoWorld March 4, 1982, p.15 books.google https://books.google.fr/books?id=gT4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA15&dq=rope

2013, Remarks on Economic Mobility (December 2013)
Context: If you still don’t like Obamacare -- and I know you don’t even though it’s built on market-based ideas of choice and competition in the private sector, then you should explain how, exactly, you’d cut costs, and cover more people, and make insurance more secure. You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against. That way we can have a vigorous and meaningful debate. That’s what the American people deserve. That’s what the times demand. It’s not enough anymore to just say we should just get our government out of the way and let the unfettered market take care of it -- for our experience tells us that’s just not true.

Quoted in Greta Thunberg: ‘All my life I’ve been the invisible girl,' Leslie Hook https://www.ft.com/content/4df1b9e6-34fb-11e9-bd3a-8b2a211d90d5Financial Times (22 February 2019)
2019

The Canton, Ohio Speech, Anti-War Speech (1918)

Speech to the Conservative Party conference http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/oct/07/conservatives2002.conservatives1 (07 October 2002)
Context: How can students and parents plan for the future when they can't rely on the country's examination system to deliver fair results? We reject Labour's "government knows best" approach, but we certainly don't subscribe to a philosophy that lets people sink or swim. We believe that an active government should focus on doing what it can to help people get on with their lives. This is the true measure of a compassionate government.

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Downing Street (April 1, 1850)

From "Living Fearlessly in a Fearless World" Ignatieff Commencement Address to Whitman College (USA), 2004
Source: 2000s, Beyond Terror: Strategy in a Changing World (2002), p. 133