Tolstoy: War and Peace (p. 192)
Classics Revisited (1968)
“The state — or, to make the matter more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office.”
As quoted in Charting the Candidates '72 (1972) by Ronald Van Doren, p. 7
1940s–present
Context: The state — or, to make the matter more concrete, the government — consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can't get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.
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H.L. Mencken 281
American journalist and writer 1880–1956Related quotes

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”
Ich habe keine besondere Begabung, sondern bin nur leidenschaftlich neugierig.
Letter to Carl Seelig http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Seelig (11 March 1952), Einstein Archives 39-013
1950s

Reported in Eddy Lawrence, " Josh Homme: Interview http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/4199/Josh_Homme-interview.html", Time Out London (February 5, 2008).

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 160

Milton Friedman - Big Business, Big Government http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_T0WF-uCWg

“There is only one favorable moment in war; talent consists in knowing how to seize it.”
Napoleon : In His Own Words (1916)

21 June 2018 https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-cabinet-meeting-9/