Contact
Privacy
Category: government
Quotes of Category: government
TOP TAGS :soulfulcivil-rights-movementnoam-chomskyphylosiphicalclass-warfarelurenew-years-eveislamic

  1. Leo Tolstoy _ The Kingdom of God Is Within

    All the methods of appointing authorities that have been tried, divine right, and election, and heredity, and balloting, and assemblies and parliaments and senate-all have proved ineffectual. Everyone knows that not one of these methods attains the aim either of entrusting power only to the incorruptible, or of preventing power from being abused. Everyone knows on the contrary that men in authority-be they emperors, ministers, governors, or police officers-are always, simply from the possession of power, more liable to be demoralized, that is, to subordinate public interests to their personal aims than those who have not the power to do so. Indeed, it could not be otherwise.
    book-quotepoliticspowergovernment

  2. Leo Tolstoy _ Anna Karenina

    In my considered opinion, salary is payment for goods delivered and it must conform to the law of supply and demand. If, therefore, the fixed salary is a violation of this law - as, for instance, when I see two engineers leaving college together and both equally well trained and efficient, and one getting forty thousand while the other only earns two thousand , or when lawyers and hussars, possessing no special qualifications, are appointed directors of banks with huge salaries - I can only conclude that their salaries are not fixed according to the law of supply and demand but simply by personal influence. And this is an abuse important in itself and having a deleterious effect on government service.
    book-quoteeconomicsgovernmenttolstoy

  3. Bill Bryson _ At Home: A Short History of

    Widespread commercial distribution of ice was so new that 300 tons of the precious commodity melted at one port while customs officials tried to figure out how to classify it.
    book-quotegovernmentinnovation

  4. Henry David Thoreau _ Civil Disobedience and Other

    Unjust laws exist; shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?
    book-quoterightssocietygovernment

  5. Mark Dunn _ Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in

    We must respect that silence and make our decisions and judgments based upon science and fact and simple old-fashioned common sense - a commodity absent for too long from those in governmental elevatia, where its employ would do us all much good.
    book-quotesciencefactsgovernment

  6. Ron Chernow _ Alexander Hamilton

    He wondered why he cared so desperately about the fate of his adopted country and others seemingly so little. "To see the character of the government and the country so sported with, exposed to so indelible a blot, puts my heart to the torture. Am I then more of an American than those who drew their first breath on American ground? Or what is it that thus torments me at a circumstance so calmly viewed by almost everybody else? Am I a fool, a romantic Quixote, or is there a constitutional defect in the American mind? Were it not for yourself and a few others, I . . . would say . . . there is something in our climate which belittles every animal, human or brute. . . . I disclose to you without reserve the state of my mind. It is discontented and gloomy in the extreme. I consider the cause of good government as having been put to an issue and the verdict against it.
    book-quotepoliticspatriotismidealism

  7. William Earl Maxwell _ Texas Politics Today,

    Scoundrels will be corrupt and unconcerned citizens apathetic under even the best constitution.
    book-quotegovernmentvotingsuffrage

  8. Terry Pratchett _ Going Postal

    Being an absolute ruler today was not as simple as people thought. At least, it was not simple if your ambitions included being an absolute ruler tomorrow. There were subtleties. Oh, you could order men to smash down doors and drag people off the dungeons without trial, but too much of that sort of thing lacked style and anyway was bad for business, habit-forming and very, very dangerous for your health. A thinking tyrant, it seemed to Vetinari, had a much harder job than a ruler raised to power by some idiot vote-yourself-rich system like democracy. At least they could tell the people he was their fault.
    book-quotegovernmentdemocracyrulers

  9. Terry Pratchett _ Making Money

    Is that all, sir? Only we've got stuff to finish before our knocking-off time, you see, and if we stay late we have to make more money to pay our overtime, and if the lads is a bit tired we ends up earning the money faster'n we can make it, which leads to a bit of what I can only call a conundrum-""You mean that if you do overtime you have to do more overtime to pay for it?" said Moist, still pondering how illogical logical thinking can be if a big enough committee is doing it."That's right, sir," said Shady. "And down that road madness lies.""It's a very short road," said Moist, nodding.
    book-quotemoneygovernmentcurrency

  10. Terry Pratchett _ Thud!

    I believe the term is 'eminent domain.'Ah, yes. That means 'theft by the government,
    book-quotegovernment

  11. Terry Pratchett _ The Fifth Elephant

    Vimes had once discussed the Ephebian idea of 'democracy' with Carrot, and had been rather interested in the idea that everyone had a vote until he found out that while he, Vimes, would have a vote, there was no way in the rules that anyone could prevent Nobby Nobbs from having one as well. Vimes could see the flaw there straight away.
    book-quotegovernmentvote

  12. Michael Pollan _ In Defense of Food: An Eater's

    {Government} regulation is an imperfect substitute for the accountability, and trust, built into a market in which food producers meet the gaze of eaters and vice versa.
    book-quotepoliticstrustfood
Categories