“How our government works… it doesn't.”

“The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Parliament of Whores

“We have to do it for our children and for our grandchildren and so that this profound experiment in ordered liberty that was bequeathed to us by Madison and Washington and Hamilton and Adams and by Lincoln doesn't collapse. That republican government, which is ultimately what's at stake here, because a licentious people is not going to sustain republican government. We've got to make sure that republican government, government not only of the people as all government is but by and for the people doesn't perish from the Earth. If we lose it here, it's not as if it's going to be restarted somewhere else. People look to the United States to see if whether self-government can actually work and it's not going to work unless we as individual people and as members of small communities, institutions of civil society, are able to govern ourselves or are able to control our own passions and desires.”

Robert P. George (1955) American legal scholar

“It doesn't stop being magic just because you know how it works.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

“The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then they get elected and prove it.”

P. J. O'Rourke book Parliament of Whores

“(Japanese Government believes that if you have a big laboratory with all the latest equipment and good funding it will automatically lead to creativity. It doesn't work that way.”

Akio Morita (1921–1999) Japanese businessman

“"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.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

“Our love, our love will last forever. It's forever but it just doesn't work. That's why it will always be romantic because it can not be complete.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

“Maybe we have to contribute ideologies to achieve the perfect utopian government. Remember, government-sponsored health care was a communist idea. Should only the rich be allowed to live long? Does that say that because a person is poor, he is a lesser human being; and doesn't deserve to live as long, because he doesn't wear a tie to work?”

Timothy McVeigh (1968–2001) American army soldier, security guard, terrorist

“The Crisis: Our institutions—especially our governing structures—are mechanistic, rigid, fragmented. The world isn't working.”

Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American writer