#government

Surely by now there can be few here who still believe the purpose of government is to protect us from the destructive activities of corporations. At last most of us must understand that the opposite is true: that the primary purpose of government is to protect those who run the economy from the outrage of injured citizens. ↗

— Derrick Jensen

#government #civilization

To win the people, always cook them some savoury that pleases them. ↗

— Aristophanes

#falsehood #government #hypocrisy #politics #popularity

Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#political-philosophy #corruption

If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent they conquered. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#wisdom #growing-up

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government IS the problem. It isn't so much that liberals are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so. ↗

— Ronald Reagan

#political-philosophy #political-philosophy

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. ↗

— John Adams

#constitution #government #inadequate #made #moral

The happiness of society is the end of government. ↗

— John Adams

#government #happiness #society

We are ending where the savages began. We have found again the lost arts of starving non-combatants, burning hovels, and leading away the vanquished into slavery. Barbarian invasions would be superfluous: we are our own Huns. ↗

— Bertrand De Jouvenel

#power #savagery #art

As opposition leader, [Stephen Harper] wrote in the Montreal Gazette in the year before he came to power: 'Information is the lifeblood of a democracy. Without adequate access to key information about government policies and programs, citizens and parliamentarians cannot make informed decisions and incompetent or corrupt governments can be hidden under a cloak of secrecy.' When he became prime minister, his attitude appeared to undergo a shift of considerable proportions. It often took the Conservatives twice as long as previous governments to handle access requests. Sometimes it took six months to a year. ↗

— Lawrence Martin

#canada #canadian #canadian-government #canadian-politics #censorship

Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education. ↗

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

#government #religion #education