#govern

Support for the arts -- merde! A government-supported artist is an incompetent whore! ↗

— Robert A. Heinlein

#arts #diy #funding #government #grant

That is the problem with governments these days. They want to do things all the time; they are always very busy thinking of what things they can do next. That is not what people want. People want to be left alone to look after their cattle. ↗

— Alexander McCall Smith

#business

My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal ↗

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#corruption #court-system #courts #ethical-behaviour #ethics

Some legislators only wish to vengeance against a particular enemy. Others only look out for themselves. They devote very little time on the consideration of any public issue. They think that no harm will come from their neglect. They act as if it is always the business of somebody else to look after this or that. When this selfish notion is entertained by all, the commonwealth slowly begins to decay. ↗

— Thucydides

#governments #rulers #business

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

— John Adams

#liberty #change

Identifying the flaw in the US philosophical roots requires that we move beyond the intellectual and emotional climate in which the Constitution was conceived and adopted. The meanings of concepts and words change with use, and even the Supreme Court has admitted that the original perspective of the American social contract has been altered by the passage of time. ↗

— David E. Wilkins

#philosophy #supreme-court #change

Well, then he would be at war with the government, and death was an unfortunate side effect of any revolution. Change always had a price tag. But once he took over, the people would realize he was a better ruler than the disorganized, self-interested mob that called themselves Congress -- men who didn't know anything, being led by a president who knew even less. ↗

— C.J. Hill

#death #government #president #war #change

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

— Steve Kluger

#my-most-excellent-year #politics #communication

What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, both civil and political. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#communication

They tax when you earn a dollar, they tax you when you save it, they tax you when you invest it. If you earn a dividend, they tax it again, and if you're stupid enough to die, they steal up to half. ↗

— Grover Norquist president of Americans for Tax Reform

#government #reform #taxes #death