Quotes about governance (7013 quotes, page 10)

“But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Letter to Abigail Adams (17 July 1775)
1770s
Source: Letters of John Adams, Addressed to His Wife

Freedom , Change

“The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978) Vice-President of the USA under Lyndon B. Johnson

Remarks at the dedication of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building, November 1, 1977, Congressional Record, November 4, 1977, vol 123, p. 37287.

Life , Children , Age

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.”

James Madison Federalist Papers

Federalist No. 51 (6 February 1788)
1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
Source: The Federalist Papers
Context: If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Men

“When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives. Our love of the Lord will govern the claims for our affection, the demands on our time, the interests we pursue, and the order of our priorities.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Love , God , Time

“Imagine the uproar if the Federal government tried to make everyone wear a radio transmitter around their neck so we can keep track of their movements. But people happily carry their cell phones in their purses and pockets.”

Lee Child book A Wanted Man

Source: A Wanted Man

People , Imagination

“Governments will rise, and governments will fall, and man will do evil to man, and all we can do is turn our hearts to good.”

Margaret Peterson Haddix book Among the Enemy

Source: Among the Enemy

Evil , Heart

“When guns are outlawed, only the Government will have guns. The Government - and a few outlaws. If that happens, you can count me among the outlaws.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Source: Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast

“We can allow satellites, planets, suns, universe, nay whole systems of universe to be governed by laws, but the smallest insect, we wish to be created at once by special act … Our faculties are more fitted to recognize the wonderful structure of a beetle than a Universe.”

Charles Darwin (1809–1882) British naturalist, author of "On the origin of species, by means of natural selection"

" Notebook N http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/vanWyhe_notebooks.html" (1838) page 36 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=25&itemID=CUL-DAR126.-&viewtype=text
quoted in [Darwin's Religious Odyssey, 2002, William E., Phipps, Trinity Press International, 9781563383847, 32, http://books.google.com/books?id=0TA81BTW3dIC&pg=PA32]
also quoted in On Evolution: The Development of the Theory of Natural Selection (1996) edited by Thomas F. Glick and David Kohn, page 81
Other letters, notebooks, journal articles, recollected statements
Source: Notebooks

Law , Universe , Sun

“It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer "universal health care."”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Random Thought
2000s, Ever Wonder Why? and Other Controversial Essays (2006)
Source: Knowledge And Decisions

People , Health , Thinking , Universe

“Democracy is a poor system of government at best; the only thing that can honestly be said in its favor is that it is eight times as good as any other method the human race has ever tried.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Democracy , Time

“Privileged people don't march and protest; their world is safe and clean and governed by laws designed to keep them happy.”

John Grisham book The Street Lawyer

Source: The Street Lawyer

People , World , Law , Happiness

“Everything government touches turns to crap.”

Ringo Starr (1940) British musician, former member of the Beatles

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely; and if you surrender your personal responsibility to a government which promises to take care of you, they will only take care of themselves.”

Howard Nemerov (1920–1991) Poet

Personality

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1770s, A Summary View of the Rights of British America (1774)
Source: A Summary View of the Rights of British America: Reprinted from the Original Ed.,

Art

“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Law

“Governments never learn. Only people learn.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Statement made in 1980, as quoted in The Cynic's Lexicon : A Dictionary Of Amoral Advice‎ (1984), by Jonathon Green, p. 77

People , Learning

“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general and politician, 34th president of the United States (in office from 1953 to 1961)

TV talk with Prime Minister Macmillan (31 August 1959)
"Selected Quotations", Eisenhower Archives, Eisenhower Library, 2007-04-01, http://web.archive.org/web/20070208232736/http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/ss1.htm, 2007-02-08 http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/ss1.htm,
1950s

People , Peace , Way , Thinking

“It didn't come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology, mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick, thank God.”

Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451

Source: Fahrenheit 451

God

“Listen -- strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”

Michael Palin (1943) British comedian, actor, writer and television presenter

Women , Lying

“Any man who thinks he is going to be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him should take a close look at the American Indian.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Possibly said by Hugh Allen, printed in Reader's Digest (Jan. 1967)
Misattributed

Thinking , Happiness

“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”

Thomas Jefferson book Notes on the State of Virginia

Query XVII
1780s, Notes on the State of Virginia

God

“Government leaders are amazing. So often it seems they are the last to know what the people want.”

Aung San Suu Kyi (1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy

People

“You wonder sometimes how our government puts on its pants in the morning.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

“I believe the government that governs best is the government that governs least. And by these standards, we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.”

Stephen Colbert (1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian, television host, and actor

White House Correspondents' Association Dinner (2006)

“All of us have our own inner fears, beliefs, opinions. These inner assumptions rule and govern our lives. A suggestion has no power in and of itself. its power arises from the fact that you accept it mentally.”

Joseph Murphy The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

Source: The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

Fear

“Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the House of Commons (11 November 1947), published in 206–07 The Official Report, House of Commons (5th Series), 11 November 1947, vol. 444, cc. http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1947/nov/11/parliament-bill#column_206
Post-war years (1945–1955)
Variant: Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried.
Context: Many forms of Government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.

Democracy

“There are men running governments who shouldn't be allowed to play with matches.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Men

“Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

1820s
Source: Letter to Thomas Jefferson (19 May 1821), published in Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0807842303&id=SzSWYPOz6M8C&pg=PP1&lpg=PP1&ots=kTAZL3ImRq&dq=%22Adams-Jefferson+letters%22&sig=tVGzBe0XVhXaF2p0FQLGy4GK6bk#PRA2-PR17,M1 (UNC Press, 1988), p. 573

Religion

“You are going to let the fear of poverty govern your life and your reward will be that you will eat, but you will not live.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Life , Fear

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”

John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States

Notes for an oration at Braintree (Spring 1772)
1770s

Men

“There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters”

Daniel Webster (1782–1852) Leading American senator and statesman. January 18, 1782 – October 24, 1852. Served as the Secretary of Sta…

A speech delivered at Niblo’s Saloon, in New York, on the 15 of March, 1837.
The Works of Daniel Webster, Boston, Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1851, vol. 1, p. 358 http://books.google.com/books?id=9DMOAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA358&lpg=PA358&dq=%22They+mean+to+govern+well%3B+but+they+mean+to+govern%22&source=bl&ots=oJ6IWDhF2B&sig=iYuDQMQjnHzxMjzbd6rJohrXVrQ&hl=en&ei=xqYqTKDpFML-nAeF2omjAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CCwQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22They%20mean%20to%20govern%20well%3B%20but%20they%20mean%20to%20govern%22&f=false.
Context: There are men, in all ages, who mean to exercise power usefully; but who mean to exercise it. They mean to govern well; but they mean to govern. They promise to be kind masters; but they mean to be masters.

Men , Age

“Government! Three fourths parasitic and the other fourth Stupid fumbling.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Stranger in a Strange Land

Source: Stranger in a Strange Land

Stupidity

“Do you work for the government, any government?”
"I pay taxes, which means I work for the government, part of the time. Yes.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

Source: My Name is Legion

Time , Parting

“When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business.”

Henry Hazlitt (1894–1993) American journalist

Business , Support , Success

“Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you -- either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

Wealth

“Don't let fear govern your decision.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Guardian

Source: The Guardian

Fear , Decision

“Simon was still trying to work out how Shadowhunter government and also Shadowhunter family trees worked. They all seemed to be related to each other and it was very disturbing.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: Welcome to Shadowhunter Academy

Family , Tree

“It takes very little to govern good people. Very little. And bad people cant be governed at all. Or if they could I never heard of it.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)

People

“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness] it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government…”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

1770s, Declaration of Independence (1776)
Context: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Life , People , Happiness

“It is certain, I think, that the best government is the one that governs the least. But there is a much-neglected corollary: the best citizen is the one who least needs governing.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: The Long-Legged House

Thinking

“You are attempting to be logical, I suspect, and logic has little to do with government, and nothing at all to do with military administration.”

Robin McKinley book The Blue Sword

Source: The Blue Sword

“We in America do not have government by the majority. We have government by the majority who participate.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

“Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.”

Harry Truman (1884–1972) American politician, 33rd president of the United States (in office from 1945 to 1953)

Lecture at Columbia University (28 April 1959)

“I find out of long experience that I admire all nations and hate all governments”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Hate

“The government cannot love you, and any politics that works on a different assumption is destined for no good.”

Jonah Goldberg (1969) American political writer and pundit

Love

“In a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.”

Matt Taibbi (1970) author and journalist

Source: Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids, and the Long Con That Is Breaking America

Democracy

“Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defence of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book V, Chapter I, Part II, 775.

Reality

“it is the people who control the Government, not the Government the
people.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

People

“No honest journalist should be willing to describe himself or herself as 'embedded.' To say, 'I'm an embedded journalist' is to say, 'I'm a government Propagandist.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Source: Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

“Parents, teachers, government - they all teach you how to live the dreary, deadening life of a slave, but nobody teaches you how to live normally.”

Ryū Murakami book In the Miso Soup

Source: In the Miso Soup (1997)

Life , Parent , Teachers

“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

To the Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland (31 March 1809)
1800s, Post-Presidency (1809)

Life , Happiness

“Peace is not merely the absence of war but the presence of justice, of law, of order —in short, of government.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Source: On Peace

War , Peace , Justice , Law

“Teach me to treat all that comes to me with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all.”

Elisabeth Elliot (1926–2015) American missionary

Peace , Soul

“Governments and entire planets are important, Threepio. But when you sift everything down, they're all just made of people.”

Timothy Zahn Heir to the Empire

Source: Heir to the Empire

People

“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.”

Alexander Hamilton Federalist Papers

No. 15
The Federalist Papers (1787–1788)

Men , Justice , Passion

“Democracy is the most vile form of government.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Democracy

“That is the trick of good government. To make folk desire to live in such a way that there is no need for its intervention.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice

Source: Assassin's Apprentice

Way

“History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

History

“Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Speech, House of Representatives, during the debate "On the Memorial of the Relief Committee of Baltimore, for the Relief of St. Domingo Refugees" (10 January 1794) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/hlaw:@field(DOCID+@lit(ed00423)):
1790s
Context: The government of the United States is a definite government, confined to specified objects. It is not like the state governments, whose powers are more general. Charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.

Parting

“[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.”

Aristophanés The Knights

Source: The Knights

Nature

“Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

The Will Rogers Book (1972)

Money

“Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Source: An Economist's Protest: Columns in Political Economy (1966), p. 107

People , Problem

“I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard.”

William F. Buckley Jr. (1925–2008) American conservative author and commentator

People , Books

“I froze, shocked. (And don't try to claim that you did anything different the first time a government bureaucrat pulled a gun on you.)”

Brandon Sanderson Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Source: Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Time

“Are there good governments and bad governments? No, there are only bad governments and worse governments.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

Source: The Most Beautiful Woman in Town & Other Stories

“What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else.”

Tom Clancy (1947–2013) American author

2000s, Kudlow & Cramer interview (2003)

People , Freedom

“Better to be uneducated than educated by your government.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

Source: God, No! Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales

Education

“Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Men

“Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others.”

Ayn Rand book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966)

Men

“Emma," said Cameron warningly. "The Clave won't like it."
The Clave was the Shadowhunter government. In Kit's experience, they didn't like anything.”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

Letter to W.T. Barry http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch18s35.html (4 August 1822), in The Writings of James Madison (1910) edited by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 9, p. 103; these words, using the older spelling "Governours", are inscribed to the left of the main entrance, Library of Congress James Madison Memorial Building.
1820s
Context: A popular Government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy, or perhaps both. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance: And a people who mean to be their own Governors, must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

People , Knowledge

“Boldness governed by superior intellect is the mark of a hero.”

Carl von Clausewitz book On War

On War (1832), Book 3

“When a country is well governed, poverty and a mean condition are things to be ashamed of. When a country is ill governed, riches and honor are things to be ashamed of.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Source: The Analects, Chapter VIII

Country

“The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

Second Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)

“If politicians stopped meddling with things they don't understand, there would be a more drastic reduction in the size of government than anyone in either party advocates.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Understanding

“If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Thinking , Sense

“Communicating with the federal government is like talking to a computer that's crashing.”

Steve Kluger (1952) American writer

Communication

“Suddenly it was obvious to Connor why they don't teach it. Once education was restructured and corporatized, they didn't want kids knowing how close they came to toppling the government. They didn't want kids to know how much power they really had.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: UnWholly

Education

“Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,- criticism of writers by readers, of government by those governed, of leaders by those led, - this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society”

W.E.B. Du Bois book The Souls of Black Folk

Source: The Souls of Black Folk

Democracy , Soul

“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Problem , Suffering , Personality

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

World

“Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

As quoted in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998) by Connie Robertson
As quoted in ...

“Why should we think upon things that are lovely Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

Love , Life , Soul , Thinking

“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

“Fear is the State's psychological weapon of choice to frighten citizens into sacrificing their basic freedoms and rule-of-law protections in exchange for the security promised by their all-powerful government.”

Philip G. Zimbardo book The Lucifer Effect

Source: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil

Fear , Law , Freedom

“Religion humanizes this universe, makes us feel important and loved. We are not animals governed by uncontrollable drives, animals that die for no apparent reason, but creatures made in the image of supreme being”

Robert Greene book The Art of Seduction

Source: The Art of Seduction

Love , Religion , Feeling , Universe

“I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Men , Pain

“To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.”

G. Edward Griffin (1931) American conspiracy theorist, film producer, author, and political lecturer

“History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling the money and its issuance.”

James Madison (1751–1836) 4th president of the United States (1809 to 1817)

As quoted in The Story of Our Money (1946) by Olive Cushing Dwinell, p. 71; this is in an author's note following a quote by Alexander Hamilton. After the author's note there is the sentence "From Writings of Madison, previously quoted. Vol. 2, p. 14". This is apparently an editor's error since the note is clearly Dwinell's. See the talk page for more details.
Misattributed

Money , History

“Readers are bullied in schoolyards and in locker-rooms as much as in government offices and prisons.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: A History of Reading

“I believe the test of government is the contentment of the people.”

Gillian Rubinstein Tales of the Otori

Source: Across the Nightingale Floor

People

“The true American patriot is by definition skeptical of the government.”

Sarah Vowell book The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Source: The Partly Cloudy Patriot (2003)

“Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Democracy

“Most of the energy of political work is devoted to correcting the effects of mismanagement of government.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government but illegal for the citizenry.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

A wonderful quote, if only it were true, despite no shortage image-quote-memes online. note: "Spurious" here: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/tyranny-defined-which-legal-government-spurious-quotation note: "Not True"
Source: https://www.truthorfiction.com/thomas-jefferson-tyranny-is-defined-as-that-which-is-legal-for-the-government-quote/