Government

"It is impossible to say what the opinion of a man or a Judge might be as to what public policy is."

"Public policy is a very unruly horse, and when once you get astride it you never know where it will carry you."

"Public policy is a high horse to mount, and is difficult to ride when you have mounted it."

"Public policy does not admit of definition and is not easily explained. It is a variable quantity; it must vary and does vary with the habits, capacities, and opportunities of the public."

"The great end, for which men enter into society, was to preserve their property. That right is preserved sacred and incommunicable in all instances, where it has not been taken away or abridged by some public law for the good of the whole. . . . Distresses, executions, forfeitures, taxes, &c, are all of this description; wherein every man, by common consent gives up that right, for the sake of justice and general good."

"There are many cases in which individuals sustain an injury, for which the law gives no action; for instance, pulling down houses, or raising bulwarks for the preservation and defence of the kingdom against the King's enemies."

"The principle of public policy is this: ex dolo malo non oritur actio. No Court will lend its aid to a man who founds his cause of action upon an immoral or illegal act."

"The argument of public policy leads you from sound law, and is never argued but when all other points fail."

"Whatever is injurious to the interests of the public is void, on the grounds of public policy."

"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."

"[A] Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

"We ought to consider what is the end of government, before we determine which is the best form. Upon this point all speculative politicians will agree, that the happiness of society is the end of government, as all Divines and moral Philosophers will agree that the happiness of the individual is the end of man. From this principle it will follow, that the form of government which communicates ease, comfort, security, or, in one word, happiness, to the greatest number of persons, and in the greatest degree, is the best. ... Fear is the foundation of most governments..."

"While all other Sciences have advanced, that of Government is at a stand; little better understood; little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago."

"Earth governments in moments of stress are not famous for being reasonable."

"Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia?"

"Kingship (or government) is a combination of terror, strictness and kindness, and it is only maintained by (resorting to) these contradictory principles."

"Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty."

"By this action, the Government has proved that so long as it exists, none of us are truly free. Government and freedom are mutually exclusive. So if we value freedom, there's only one conclusion. It's time to get rid of this leftover relic we call Government."

"If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?"

"[Parsons] had witnessed the blinding overnight successes achieved by the government-by-terror totalitarianism of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany. He had the foresight to see that [the [[United States|United States of] America]], once armed with the new powers of total destruction and surveillance that were sure to follow the swelling flood of new technologies, had the potential to become even more repressive unless its founding principles of individual liberty were religiously preserved and its leaders held accountable to them."

"The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man."

"“No!” someone else cried, and a dozen others whispered, “No!” “That’s not possible,” someone said. “Anything,” said Cardiff, quietly, “in government, is possible.”"

"If the government becomes a law-breaker, it breeds contempt for the law. It invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy."

"[E]nergetic government is good for its own sake. It raises the sights of the individual. It strengthens common bonds. It boosts national pride. It continues the great national project. It allows each generation to join the work of their parents."

"A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; An hour may lay it in the dust."

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

"Governments in capitalist society are but committees of the rich to manage the affairs of the capitalist class."

"The God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever."

"The class which has the power to rob upon a large scale has also the power to control the government and legalize their robbery."

"If it was possible for men who exercise their reason, to believe that the divine Author of our existence intended a part of the human race to hold an absolute property in, and an unbounded power over others, marked out by his infinite goodness and wisdom, as the objects of a legal domination never rightfully resistible, however severe and oppressive, the inhabitants of these Colonies might at least require from the Parliament of Great Britain some evidence, that this dreadful authority over them has been granted to that body. But a reverence for our great Creator, principles of humanity, and the dictates of common sense, must convince all those who reflect upon the subject, that Government was instituted to promote the welfare of mankind, and ought to be administered for the attainment of that end."

"Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been found that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery."

"Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state."

"Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced."

"A man contains all that is needful to his government within himself. He is made a law unto himself."

"The government will not free us, and is part of the problem rather than part of the solution."

"To Anarchists, a Capitalist "democratic" government is no better than a fascist or Communist regime, because the ruling class only differs in the amount of violence they authorize their police and army to use and the degree of rights they will allow, if any. Through war, police repression, social neglect, and political repression. Governments have killed millions of persons, whether trying to defend or overthrow a government. Anarchists want to end this slaughter, and build a society based on peace and freedom."

"Let’s look at the real world and set who is causing all this violence and repression of human rights. The wholesale murder by standing armies in World Wars I and II, the pillage and tape of former colonial counties, military invasions or so-called “police operations” in Korea and Vietnam — all of these have been done by governments. It is government and state/class rule, which is the source of all violence. This includes all governments. The so-called “Communist” world is not communist and the “Free” world is not free. East and West, Capitalism, private or state remains an inhuman type of society where the vast majority is bossed at work, at home, and in the community. Propaganda (news and literary), policemen and soldiers, prisons and schools, traditional values and morality all serve to reinforce the power of the few and to convince or correct the many into passive acceptance of a brutal degrading and irrational system. This is what Anarchists mean by authority being oppression, and it is just such authoritarian rule which is at work in the United States of America, as well as the “Communist” governments of China or Cuba."

"The best public servant is the worst one. A thoroughly first-rate man in public service is corrosive. He eats holes in our liberties. The better he is and the longer he stays the greater the danger. If he is an enthusiast -- a bright-eyed madman who is frantic to make this the finest government in the world -- the black plague is a house pet by comparison."

"No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles, nor to prescribe in any way the character of the questions investigated. Neither may a government determine the aesthetic value of artistic creations, nor limit the forms of literacy or artistic expression. Nor should it pronounce on the validity of economic, historic, religious, or philosophical doctrines. Instead it has a duty to its citizens to maintain the freedom, to let those citizens contribute to the further adventure and the development of the human race."

"Each person who hears another one cry for help is lawfully bound by the state-compact to hasten to his assistance. For all individuals have promised to all individuals to protect them; and the cry for help is the announcement that a danger exists, which the representative of the protecting power, the government, can not immediately remove. Hence, the cry for help confers upon each individual again not only the right but also the obligation to render immediate protection. If it can be proved that a citizen heard the cry for help and did not hurry to assistance, he is liable to punishment…"

"Women are ineligible to public offices for the following simple reasons: public officers are responsible to the state; and hence must be perfectly free, and dependent always only upon their own will; otherwise such a responsibility would be unjust and contradictory. Woman, however, is free and independent only so long as she has no husband. Hence the exclusive condition under which a woman might become eligible to office, would be the promise not to marry. But no rational woman can give such a promise, nor can the state rationally accept it. For woman is destined to love, and love comes to women of itself — does not depend upon her free will. But when she loves, it is her duty to marry, and the state must not form an obstacle to this duty. Now, if a woman, holding a public office, were to marry, two cases are possible. Firstly, she might not subject herself to her husband so far as her official duties were concerned. But this is utterly against female dignity; for she can not say then, that she has given herself up wholly to the husband. Moreover, where are the strict limits which separate official from private life Or, secondly, she might subject herself utterly, as nature and morality require, to her husband, even so far as her official duties are concerned. But, in that case, she would cease to be the official, and he would become it."

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

"The state is not a universal nor in itself an autonomous source of power. The state is nothing else but the effect, the profile, the mobile shape of a perpetual statification or statifications, in the sense of incessant transactions which modify, or move, or drastically change, or insidiously shift sources of finance, modes of investment, decision-making centers, forms and types of control, relationships between local powers, the central authority, and so on. In short, the state has no heart, as we well know, but not just in the sense that it has no feelings, either good or bad, but it has no heart in the sense that it has no interior. The state is nothing else but the mobile effect of a regime of multiple governmentalities."

"If a private enterprise is a failure, it closes down—unless it can get a government subsidy to keep it going; if a government enterprise fails, it is expanded. I challenge you to find exceptions."

"All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people."

"Governments are by their nature aggressive and dominating. No society is safe if its neighbor is a state."

"Governments can be democratic or not, more or less corrupt, but they will still pursue the same basic goals, and they will still be controlled by an elite. Government by its very nature concentrates power and excludes people from making decisions over their own lives."

"Government doesn’t louse up everything, but it sure louses up a lot of what it promises to deliver... [G]overnment has an abysmal record of abusing the public’s trust, finances, and its own authority. Now some people want it to take on a bigger role?"

"To prevent government from becoming corrupt and tyrannous, its organization and methods should be as simple as possible, its functions be restricted to those necessary to the common welfare, and in all its parts it should be kept as close to the people and as directly within their control as may be."

"Government was intended to suppress injustice, but it offers new occasions and temptations for the commission of it."

"For just experience tells, in every soil, That those who think must govern those that toil."

"For those who think it important for the Nation to impose more tariffs, I understand that today’s decision will be disappointing. All I can offer them is that most major decisions affecting the rights and responsibilities of the American people (including the duty to pay taxes and tariffs) are funneled through the legislative process for a reason. Yes, legislating can be hard and take time. And, yes, it can be tempting to bypass Congress when some pressing problem arises. But the deliberative nature of the legislative process was the whole point of its design. Through that process, the Nation can tap the combined wisdom of the people’s elected representatives, not just that of one faction or man. There, deliberation tempers impulse, and compromise hammers disagreements into workable solutions. And because laws must earn such broad support to survive the legislative process, they tend to endure, allowing ordinary people to plan their lives in ways they cannot when the rules shift from day to day. In all, the legislative process helps ensure each of us has a stake in the laws that govern us and in the Nation’s future. For some today, the weight of those virtues is apparent. For others, it may not seem so obvious. But if history is any guide, the tables will turn and the day will come when those disappointed by today’s result will appreciate the legislative process for the bulwark of liberty it is."

"We are not made to live subjected to authoritarian rule but instead need to be independent and free to act as we choose. This is what we call the individual’s common consciousness. No matter how well the government develops, no matter how kindly public officials lead us, they will never be able to satisfy our ideal. The more complicated the government becomes, the more corrupt it gets."

"That big thief called the government."

"Let's by all means shrink the size of government, but not by slashing the poverty programs, but by ensuring that workers are paid enough so that they actually don't need those programs. Let's invest enough in the middle class to make our economy fairer and more inclusive, and by fairer, more truly competitive, and by more truly competitive, more able to generate the solutions to human problems that are the true drivers of growth and prosperity. Capitalism is the greatest social technology ever invented for creating prosperity in human societies, if it is well managed, but capitalism, because of the fundamental multiplicative dynamics of complex systems, tends towards, inexorably, inequality, concentration and collapse. The work of democracies is to maximize the inclusion of the many in order to create prosperity, not to enable the few to accumulate money. Government does create prosperity and growth, by creating the conditions that allow both entrepreneurs and their customers to thrive. Balancing the power of capitalists like me and workers isn't bad for capitalism. It's essential to it. Programs like a reasonable minimum wage, affordable healthcare, paid sick leave, and the progressive taxation necessary to pay for the important infrastructure necessary for the middle class like education, R and D, these are indispensable tools shrewd capitalists should embrace to drive growth, because no one benefits from it like us."

"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us."

"Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the daily life of most humans ran its course within three ancient frames: the nuclear family, the extended family and the local intimate community. Most people worked in the family business – the family farm or the family workshop, for example – or they worked in their neighbours’ family businesses. The family was also the welfare system, the health system, the education system, the construction industry, the trade union, the pension fund, the insurance company, the radio, the television, the newspapers, the bank and even the police."

"Can humans exist without some people ruling and others being ruled? The founders of political science did not think so. "I put for a general inclination of mankind, a perpetual and restless desire for power after power, that ceaseth only in death," declared Thomas Hobbes. Because of this innate lust for power, Hobbes thought that life before (or after) the state was a "war of every man against every man"—"solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short." Was Hobbes right? Do humans have an unquenchable desire for power that, in the absence of a strong ruler, inevitably leads to a war of all against all? To judge from surviving examples of bands and villages, for the greater part of prehistory our kind got along quite well without so much as a paramount chief, let alone the all-powerful English leviathan King and Mortal God, whom Hobbes believed was needed for maintaining law and order among his fractious countrymen."

"Well, I would say that, as long-term institutions, I am totally against dictatorships. But a dictatorship may be a necessary system for a transitional period. At times it is necessary for a country to have, for a time, some form or other of dictatorial power. As you will understand, it is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism. My personal impression — and this is valid for South America — is that in Chile, for example, we will witness a transition from a dictatorial government to a liberal government. And during this transition it may be necessary to maintain certain dictatorial powers, not as something permanent, but as a temporary arrangement."

"A limited democracy might indeed be the best protector of individual liberty and be better than any other form of limited government, but an unlimited democracy is probably worse than any other form of unlimited government, because its government loses the power even to do what it thinks right if any group on which its majority depends thinks otherwise. If Mrs. Thatcher said that free choice is to be exercised more in the market place than in the ballot box, she has merely uttered the truism that the first is indispensable for individual freedom, while the second is not: free choice can at least exist under a dictatorship that can limit itself but not under the government of an unlimited democracy which cannot."

"The conception that government should be guided by majority opinion makes sense only if that opinion is independent of government. The ideal of democracy rests on the belief that the view which will direct government emerges from an independent and spontaneous process. It requires, therefore, the existence of a large sphere independent of majority control in which the opinions of the individuals are formed."

"Once wide coercive powers are given to governmental agencies for particular purposes, such powers cannot be effectively controlled by democratic assemblies."

"The chief evil is unlimited government, and nobody is qualified to wield unlimited power. The powers which modern democracy possesses would be even more intolerable in the hands of some small elite."

"The "Austrian" economists, more consistently than those of any other school, have criticized nearly all forms of government intervention in the market — especially inflation, price controls, and schemes for redistribution of wealth or incomes because they recognize that these always lead to erosions of incentives, to distortions of production, to shortages, to demoralization, and to similar consequences deplored even by the originators of the schemes."

"The government’s monopoly is what has allowed it to produce so bad a product for so long."

"Government was a great vortex summoning men rapidly into it, placing them briefly near the summitry of ambition and then sweeping them out, often ruthless into execution or exile."

"Government is the most dangerous institution known to man. Throughout history it has violated the rights of men more than any individual or group of individuals could do: it has killed people, enslaved them, sent them to forced labor and concentration camps, and regularly robbed and pillaged them of the fruits of their expended labor. Unlike individual criminals, government has the power to arrest and try; unlike individual criminals, it can surround and encompass a person totally, dominating every aspect of one's life, so that one has no recourse from it but to leave the country (and in totalitarian nations even that is prohibited)."

"The only proper role of government, according to libertarians, is that of the protector of the citizen against aggression by other individuals. The government, of course, should never initiate aggression; its proper role is as the embodiment of the retaliatory use of force against anyone who initiates its use."

"It is not democracy but unlimited government that is objectionable, and I do not see why the people should not learn to limit the scope of majority rule as well as that of any other form of government. At any rate, the advantages of democracy as a method of peaceful change and of political education seem to be so great compared with those of any other system that I can have no sympathy with the antidemocratic strain of conservatism. It is not who governs but what government is entitled to do that seems to me the essential problem."

"What experience and history teach is this, ... that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it."

"Government should exist only to try to protect the rights of every individual, not to redistribute the property, manipulate the economy, or establish a pattern of society."

"Do you know who is responsible?" "Why of course, it's the government!" "Jill, 'the government' is several million people."

"A rational anarchist believes that concepts such as "state" and "society" and "government" have no existence save as physically exemplified in the acts of self-responsible individuals. He believes that it is impossible to shift blame, share blame, distribute blame … as blame, guilt, responsibility are matters taking place inside human beings singly and nowhere else. But being rational, he knows that not all individuals hold his evaluations, so he tries to live perfectly in an imperfect world … aware that his effort will be less than perfect yet undismayed by self-knowledge of self-failure."

"By art is created that great Leviathan called a commonwealth, or state, (in Latin civitas) which is but an artificial man; though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which, the sovereignty is an artificial soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body; the magistrates, and other officers of judicature and execution, artificial joints; reward and punishment (by which fastened to the seat of the sovereignty, every joint and member is moved to perform his duty) are the nerves, that do the same in the body natural; the wealth and riches of all the particular members, are the strength; salus populi (the peoples safety) its business; counselors, by whom all things needful for it to know, are suggested unto it, are the memory; equity and laws, an artificial reason and will; concord, health; sedition, sickness; and civil war, death. Lastly, the pacts and covenants, by which the parts of this body politique were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that fiat, or the “let us make man,” pronounced by God in the creation."

"What I mean by saying that war is wrong is not only that it is bad but that it ought not to be waged, that governments ought not to declare and fight wars, societies ought not to provide them with the means by which to do so, and individuals ought not to sanction, support and participate in wars."

"There are governments that claim that limiting religious liberty is necessary to protect social stability or the harmony of the country. Romero’s message is that this is [no] valid justification. [Civil or natural] rights protection defines what a legitimate social stability is, rather than the other way around."

"Woe to those who make unjust laws,"

"I cannot be brought to believe that this country will suffer if the Court refuses further to aggrandize the presidential office, already so potent and so relatively immune from judicial review, at the expense of Congress.But I have no illusion that any decision by this Court can keep power in the hands of Congress if it is not wise and timely in meeting its problems. A crisis that challenges the President equally, or perhaps primarily, challenges Congress. If not good law, there was worldly wisdom in the maxim attributed to Napoleon that "The tools belong to the man who can use them." We may say that power to legislate for emergencies belongs in the hands of Congress, but only Congress itself can prevent power from slipping through its fingers.The essence of our free Government is "leave to live by no man's leave, underneath the law" -- to be governed by those impersonal forces which we call law. Our Government is fashioned to fulfill this concept so far as humanly possible. The Executive, except for recommendation and veto, has no legislative power. The executive action we have here originates in the individual will of the President, and represents an exercise of authority without law. No one, perhaps not even the President, knows the limits of the power he may seek to exert in this instance, and the parties affected cannot learn the limit of their rights. We do not know today what powers over labor or property would be claimed to flow from Government possession if we should legalize it, what rights to compensation would be claimed or recognized, or on what contingency it would end. With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations. Such institutions may be destined to pass away. But it is the duty of the Court to be last, not first, to give them up."

"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest."

"[T]hat 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."

"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights."

"A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned -- this is the sum of good government."

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, it expects what never was and never will be."

"Jesus knew who really rules the world. On one occasion, Satan “showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.” Then Satan promised Jesus: “All these things I will give you if you fall [or, bow] down and do an act of worship to me.” (Matthew 4:8, 9; Luke 4:5, 6) Ask yourself, ‘If those kingdoms didn’t belong to Satan, could he have offered them to Jesus?’ No. All governments belong to Satan."

"But when they bring YOU in before public assemblies and government officials and authorities, do not become anxious about how or what YOU will speak in defense or what YOU will say; for the holy spirit will teach YOU in that very hour the things YOU ought to say."

"They worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”"

"The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast."

"Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

"Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today—my own government."

"Government, in the last analysis, is organized opinion. Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be bad government, which sooner or later becomes autocratic government."

"Governments are nothing more or less than gigantic criminal conspiracies, overgrown street gangs with no claims whatsoever to legitimacy. They are funded by theft and the basis of all their operations is aggression. They're no more entitled to keep their activities secret than any other gaggle of murderers, rapists and thieves is."

"Rights come from a creator, not government. Government's purpose is limited to protecting natural rights, which is the standard we use to judge governments."

"Then the great question of government is also in an unsatisfactorv condition; for I think all will agree that there is no country in the world which is governed, as every country in the world ought to be, solely with regard to the interests and advancement of the people who are governed. On the contrary we find everywhere personal and party considerations, and matters are in such condition that even the wisest and the best of our statesmen cannot do many things which they wish to do, and find themselves forced into many actions of which in truth they do not approve... All of these difficulties arise from ignorance and selfishness. If men understood the plan of evolution, instead of working each for his own personal ends they would all join together as a community and work harmoniously for the good of all with mutual tolerance and forbearance. It is obvious that if this were done all of these evils would almost immediately cease or at any rate could very shortly be removed. p. 326"

"A great change too will come over the power side of man’s development; the whole question of government and organization will stand upon a different basis. Men will see then vividly and clearly the effect upon the astral plane of many of their actions upon the physical, and thus much that is now done thoughtlessly will become an absolute impossibility There could be no possibility of the slaughter of animals for food, for example, if only men were able to see the results upon the astral plane which that slaughter produces. The crime which men call sport would be utterly abolished if they were able to see what it is that they are really doing. It needs so slight a development to change the whole face of this which we call civilization, and to change it very much for the better. p. 345"

"[T]he tested norm is the family unit. It is the building brick of society. Governments will come, governments will go, but this endures."

"Imagine there's no countries, It isn't hard to do, Nothing to kill or die for, And no religion too, Imagine all the people living life in peace...You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope some day you'll join us, And the world will be as one."

"If you have a government of good laws and bad men, you will have a bad government. For bad men will not be bound by good laws."

"Government, when it is examined, turns out to be nothing more nor less than a group of fallible men with the political force to act as though they were infallible."

"That no human ruler can claim the same degree of allegiance that God claims; that God's kingship or suzerainty relativizes all human regimes; that all human political arrangements, even the most just and humane, fall short of the kingdom of God: these are ideas that have reverberated over the centuries and into our own time."

"If you want to get anything done, you don’t go to the government."

"No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability."

"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 popular government without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy, or perhaps both."

"The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse."

"Government is a true religion: it has its dogmas, its mysteries, and its ministers. To annihilate it or submit it to the discussion of each individual is the same thing; it lives only through national reason, that is to say through political faith, which is a creed."

"Every nation gets the government it deserves."

"True to form, when a plan was in trouble, like two chickens—one healthy and the other sick—government would kill the healthy chicken, make chicken soup, and feed it to the sick chicken."

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it."

"If a government proclaims its interest in protecting the environment but allocates little money or efforts toward that goal, environmental protection is not, in fact, the government's purpose. Purposes are deduced from behaviour, not from rhetoric or stated goals."

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself... Almost inevitably, he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, and intolerable."

"On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant."

"Our rulers are theoretically "our" representatives, but they are busy turning us into the instruments of the projects they keep dreaming up. The business of governments, one might think, is to supply the framework of law within which we may pursue happiness on our own account. Instead, we are constantly being summoned to reform ourselves. Debt, intemperance, and incompetence in rearing our children are no doubt regettable, but they are vices, and if left to generate their own consequences, vices soon lead to the pain that corrects. Life is a better teacher of virtue than politicians, and most sensible governments in the past left moral faults alone. Instead, democratic citizenship in the twenty-first century means receiving a steam of improving "messages" from authority. Some may forgive these intrusions because they are so well intentioned. Who would defend prejudice, debt, or excessive drinking? The point, however, is that our rulers have no business telling us how to live. They are tiresome enough in their exercise of authority. They are intolerable when they mount the pulpit. We should never doubt that nationalizing the moral life is the first step toward totalitarianism."

"If our government is not a representative government it is nothing."

"The way people in democracies think of the government as something different from themselves is a real handicap. And, of course, sometimes the government confirms their opinion."

"Some people think that being in government for a long time is a bad thing. But the more you stay, the more you learn. I am now an expert in governance."

"... some people are against corporations but for government. ... government is just a corporation in the limit. It's the biggest corporation of all — and it's got a monopoly on violence. So if you don't like corporations, you should really hate government."

"Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen."

"A government which cannot protect its humblest citizens from outrage and injury is unworthy of the name and ought not to command the support of a free people."

"Staat heisst das kälteste aller kalten Ungeheuer. Kalt lügt es auch; und diese Lüge kriecht aus seinem Munde: „Ich, der Staat, bin das Volk.“ Lüge ist’s! Schaffende waren es, die schufen die Völker und hängten einen Glauben und eine Liebe über sie hin: also dienten sie dem Leben. Vernichter sind es, die stellen Fallen auf für Viele und heissen sie Staat: sie hängen ein Schwert und hundert Begierden über sie hin."

"Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadows about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us."

"Giving money and power to Government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys."

"That’s precisely what the founders left us: the power to adapt to changing times. They left us the keys to a system of self-government – the tool to do big and important things together that we could not possibly do alone. To stretch railroads and electricity and a highway system across a sprawling continent. To educate our people with a system of public schools and land grant colleges, including Ohio State. To care for the sick and the vulnerable, and provide a basic level of protection from falling into abject poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth. To conquer fascism and disease; to visit the Moon and Mars; to gradually secure our God-given rights for all our citizens, regardless of who they are, what they look like, or who they love. We, the people, chose to do these things together. Because we know this country cannot accomplish great things if we pursue nothing greater than our own individual ambition. Still, you’ll hear voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s the root of all our problems, even as they do their best to gum up the works; or that tyranny always lurks just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can’t be trusted. We have never been a people who place all our faith in government to solve our problems, nor do we want it to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. As citizens, we understand that America is not about what can be done for us. It’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. The founders trusted us with this awesome authority. We should trust ourselves with it, too. Because when we don’t, when we turn away and get discouraged and abdicate that authority, we grant our silent consent to someone who’ll gladly claim it."

"I came to understand how organized governments used their concentrated power to retard progress by their ever-ready means of silencing the voice of discontent if raised in vigorous protest against the machinations of the scheming few, who always did, always will and always must rule in the councils of nations where is recognized as the only means of adjusting the affairs of people. I came to understand that such concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many. Government in its last analysis is this power reduced to a science. Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then."

"We look away from government for relief, because we know that force (legalized) invades the personal liberty of man, seizes upon the natural elements and intervenes between man and natural laws; from this exercise of force through governments flows nearly all the misery, poverty, crime and confusion existing in society."

"The idea of less restriction and more liberty, and a confiding trust that nature is equal to her work, is permeating all modern thought. From the dark year-not so long gone by-when it was generally believed that man's soul was totally depraved and every human impulse bad; when every action, every thought and every emotion was controlled and restricted; when the human frame, diseased, was bled, dosed, suffocated and kept as far from nature's remedies as possible; when the mind was seized upon and distorted before it had time to evolve a natural thought-from those days to these years the progress of this idea has been swift and steady. It is becoming more and more apparent that in every way we are "governed best where we are governed least.""

"ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου τῶν καταργουμένων·"

"We have moved from an age in which government leaders sought to do what was best for the people to one in which the political leadership is convinced it knows what is best for the people, whether they like it or not."

"For forms of government let fools contest; Whate'er is best administer'd is best."

"The evils that exist in our government are more often the consequence of too hasty and too much legislation, than too little."

"In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price."

"Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work-work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."

"In a free society, the primary role of government is to protect the God-given, inalienable, inherent rights of its citizens, including the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"As the saying goes, a government that robs Peter to pay Paul can count on getting Paul’s vote."

"[S]ome people -- most, it seems -- will, under some circumstances, do anything someone in authority tells them to. ... Government institutions, like most humans, have a reflexive reaction to the exposure of internal corruption and wrongdoing: No matter how transparent the effort, their first response is to lie, conceal and cover up. Also like human beings, once an institution has embraced a particular lie in support of a particular coverup, it will forever proclaim its innocence."

"More people than ever before look to government as their best chance of securing well-being rather than as their inevitable enemy. Politics as a contest to capture state power has at times apparently replaced religion (sometimes even appearing to eclipse market economics) as the focus of faith that can move mountains."

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

"Governments have three main economic functions in a market economy: 1. Governments increase efficiency by promoting competition, curbing externalities like pollution, and providing public goods. 2. Governments promote equity by using tax and expenditure programs to redistribute income toward particular groups. 3. Governments foster macroeconomic stability and growth—reducing unemployment and inflation while encouraging economic growth—through fiscal and monetary policy."

"For government, through high and low and lower, Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, Congreeing in a full and natural close, Like music."

"How, in one house, Should many people, under two commands, Hold amity? 'Tis hard; almost impossible."

"Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by women."

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

"Can any one feel any respect for a government that accords rights only to the privileged classes, and none to the workers?"

"With the exception of the writ of habeas corpus, a privilege not required under the Jewish government, simply because it did not allow of imprisonment, there is not a single feature of free government that is not distinctly developed in the Bible."

"Public confidence in the integrity of the Government is indispensable to faith in democracy; and when we lose faith in the system, we have lost faith in everything we fight and spend for."

"Government is theoretically a constitutional system of checks and balances between equally powerful branches. But what government actually is, is an overly-complicated, byzantine, bureaucratic maze of rules, loopholes to those rules, and norms; complex enough that 🄐 if you want to find a rule that keeps you from doing something, you'll find it; and 🄑 if you actually want to do something, you can find a loophole to get around said rule. And then the norms are just how often you've had to pull any of this shit."

"The state calls its own violence law, but that of the individual, crime."

"Violence is the left hand of government."

"Bills were passed, not only for national objects but for individual cases, and laws were most numerous when the commonwealth was most corrupt."

"The government cannot bestow dignity, and it cannot take it away."

"I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe, "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have."

"[Administration] covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, guided; men are seldom restrained from acting, such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to be nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which government is the shepherd."

"Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government."

"From the time that the heads of government assumed an external and nominal Christianity, men began to invent all the impossible, cunningly devised theories by means of which Christianity can be reconciled with government. But no honest and serious-minded man of our day can help seeing the incompatibility of true Christianity — the doctrine of meekness, forgiveness of injuries, and love — with government, with its pomp, acts of violence, executions, and wars. The profession of true Christianity not only excludes the possibility of recognizing government, but even destroys its very foundations."

"Bureaucracy and social harmony are inversely proportional to each other."

"There are insane people who wish to rule the world. They wish to continue to rule the world on violence and repression, and we are all the victims of that violence and repression."

"Our obligations and loyalty should not be to a government that has proven time and time again that it is the enemy of the people unless the people are rich in dollars."

"The Earth can no longer take this attack. We can no longer allow this thing to continue when it’s polluting the air, it’s polluting the water, polluting our food. ... The Earth gives us life, not the American government. The earth gives us life, not the multi-national corporate government. The Earth gives us life. We need to have the Earth. We must have it, otherwise our life will be no more. So we must resist what they do."

"Government is either organized benevolence or organized madness; its peculiar magnitude permits no shading."

"Public government, what you think of as the government—its job is just to keep the citizenry in line, make sure they don’t make trouble for the real government. Real government is private government. Its job is helping rich people to become more so."

"Key to success is a stable state, not a stable government."

"Government is not a warfare of interests. We shall not gain our ends by heat and bitterness, which make it impossible to think either calmly or fairly. Government is a matter of common counsel, and everyone must come into the consultation with the purpose to yield to the general view, the view which seems most nearly to correspond with the common interest. If any decline frank conference, keep out, hold off, they must take the consequences and blame only themselves if they are in the end badly served."

"Better were the prospects of a people under the influence of the worst government who should hold the power of changing it, than those of a people under the best who should hold no such power."

"With more and more governments, however crude and experimental, dedicated to industrial democracy and universal brotherhood, the era of peace and joy in living will come on earth."

"The government has strategies. The people have counterstrategies."

"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."

"People should not be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."

"And thus Bureaucracy, the giant power wielded by pigmies, came into the world."

"If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that in the administration of the criminal law the end justifies the means—to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure the conviction of a private criminal—would bring terrible retribution."

"We cannot meet it [the threat of dictatorship] if we turn this country into a wishy-washy imitation of totalitarianism, where every man's hand is out for pabulum and virile creativeness has given place to the patronizing favor of swollen bureaucracy."

"The nearest approach to immortality on earth is a government bureau."

"In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government."

"Only perhaps in the United States, which alone of countries can do without governing,—every man being at least able to live, and move off into the wilderness, let Congress jargon as it will,—can such a form of so-called "Government" continue for any length of time to torment men with the semblance, when the indispensable substance is not there."

"The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust."

"For nearly five years the present Ministers have harassed every trade, worried every profession, and assailed or menaced every class, institution, and species of property in the country. Occasionally they have varied this state of civil warfare by perpetrating some job which outraged public opinion, or by stumbling into mistakes which have been always discreditable, and sometimes ruinous. All this they call a policy, and seem quite proud of it; but the country has, I think, made up its mind to close this career of plundering and blundering."

"The American wage earner and the American housewife are a lot better economists than most economists care to admit. They know that a government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have."

"In a political sense, there is one problem that currently underlies all of the others. That problem is making Government sufficiently responsive to the people. If we don't make government responsive to the people, we don't make it believable. And we must make government believable if we are to have a functioning democracy."

"The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other … is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exist."

"Our form of government may remain notwithstanding legislation or decision, but, as long ago observed, it is with governments, as with religion, the form may survive the substance of the faith."

"Fellow-citizens! Clouds and darkness are round about Him! His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds of the skies! Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne! Mercy and truth shall go before his face! Fellow-citizens! God reigns and the government at Washington still lives."

"Welche Regierung die beste sei? Diejenige, die uns lehrt, uns selbst zu regieren."

"A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to conciliate with dignity, but a weak one is odious in the former, and contemptible in the latter."

"The system … is the best that the present views and circumstances of the country will permit."

"But, sir, I have said I do not dread these corporations as instruments of power to destroy this country, because there are a thousand agencies which can regulate, restrain, and control them; but there is a corporation we may all well dread. That corporation is the Federal Government."

"Far more important to me is, that I should be loyal to what I regard as the law of my political life, which is this: a belief that that country is best governed, which is least governed …"

"It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life—the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

"I confess I have the same fears for our South American brethren; the qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. They are the result of habit and long training, and for these they will require time and probably much suffering."

"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural; and this will be as long as there shall be vacant lands in any part of America. When they get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, they will become corrupt as in Europe."

"If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy."

"Were we directed from Washington when to sow, & when to reap, we should soon want bread."

"I believe that the essence of government lies with unceasing concern for the welfare and dignity and decency and innate integrity of life for every individual. I don't like to say this and wish I didn't have to add these words to make it clear but I will—regardless of color, creed, ancestry, sex or age."

"Before my term has ended, we shall have to test anew whether a nation organized and governed such as ours can endure. The outcome is by no means certain."

"Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin to carry across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep shouting out to him—"Blondin, stand up a little straighter—Blondin, stoop a little more—go a little faster—lean a little more to the north—lean a little more to the south?" No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The Government are carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures are in their hands. They are doing the very best they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe across."

"I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it."

"Must a government, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?"

"There is an important sense in which government is distinctive from administration. One is perpetual, the other is temporary and changeable. A man may be loyal to his government and yet oppose the particular principles and methods of administration."

"While the people retain their virtue, and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government, in the short space of four years."

"We must judge of a form of government by its general tendency, not by happy accidents."

"Yes, Gentlemen; if I am asked why we are free with servitude all around us, why our Habeas Corpus Act has not been suspended, why our press is still subject to no censor, why we still have the liberty of association, why our representative institutions still abide in all their strength, I answer, It is because in the year of revolutions we stood firmly by our government in its peril; and, if I am asked why we stood by our government in its peril, when men all around us were engaged in pulling governments down, I answer, It was because we knew that though our government was not a perfect government, it was a good government, that its faults admitted of peaceable and legal remedies, that it had never inflexibly opposed just demands, that we had obtained concessions of inestimable value, not by beating the drum, not by ringing the tocsin, not by tearing up the pavement, not by running to the gunsmiths' shops to search for arms, but by the mere force of reason and public opinion."

"The free system of government we have established is so congenial with reason, with common sense, and with a universal feeling, that it must produce approbation and a desire of imitation, as avenues may be found for truth to the knowledge of nations."

"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."

"Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite."

"Thus, a people may prefer a free government, but if, from indolence, or carelessness, or cowardice, or want of public spirit, they are unequal to the exertions necessary for preserving it; if they will not fight for it when it is directly attacked; if they can be deluded by the artifices used to cheat them out of it; if by momentary discouragement, or temporary panic, or a fit of enthusiasm for an individual, they can be induced to lay their liberties at the feet even of a great man, or trust him with powers which enable him to subvert their institutions; in all these cases they are more or less unfit for liberty: and though it may be for their good to have had it even for a short time, they are unlikely long to enjoy it."

"When the people are too much attached to savage independence, to be tolerant of the amount of power to which it is for their good that they should be subject, the state of society (as already observed) is not yet ripe for representative government."

"You have the God-given right to kick the government around—don't hesitate to do so."

"Ne pas laisser vieillir les hommes doit être le grand art du gouvernement."

"[G]overnment even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one"

"Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them, and as governments are made and moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, they will cure it. But if men be bad, let the government be never so good, they will endeavour to warp and spoil it to their turn."

"Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants."

"To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right nor the knowledge nor the virtue."

"There is no credit to being a comedian, when you have the whole Government working for you. All you have to do is report the facts. I don't even have to exaggerate."

"Governments can err, Presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a Government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a Government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."

"History proves that dictatorships do not grow out of strong and successful governments, but out of weak and helpless ones. If by democratic methods people get a government strong enough to protect them from fear and starvation, their democracy succeeds; but if they do not, they grow impatient. Therefore, the only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over its government."

"The art of government is the organization of idolatry."

"The true art of government consists in not governing too much."

"I heartily accept the motto,—"That government is best which governs least;" and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which I also believe,—"That government is best which governs not at all;" and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient."

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

"Other misfortunes may be borne, or their effects overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation may renew it; if it exhaust our treasury, future industry may replenish it;… It were but a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars should fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished government? Who shall rear again the well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty?… No, if these columns fall, they will be raised not again…. they will be the remnants of a more glorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw, the edifice of constitutional American liberty."

"Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may."

"Trust nothing to the enthusiasm of the people. Give them a strong and a just, and, if possible, a good, government; but, above all, a strong one."

"My reading of history convinces me that most bad government has grown out of too much government."

"Too much law was too much government; and too much government was too little individual privilege,—as too much individual privilege in its turn was selfish license."

"The declaration that our People are hostile to a government made by themselves, for themselves, and conducted by themselves, is an insult."

"The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to determine whether a republican government is practicable in a nation or not."

"Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be, decided among men. A resolution was passed without one dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States."

"Not stones, nor wood, nor the art of artisans make a state; but where men are who know how to take care of themselves, these are cities and walls."

"States are great engines moving slowly."

"Adeo ut omnes imperii virga sive bacillum vere superius inflexum sit."

"It [Calvinism] established a religion without a prelate, a government without a king."

"Oh, we are weary pilgrims; to this wilderness we bring A Church without a bishop, a State without a King."

"Yet if thou didst but know how little wit governs this mighty universe."

""Whatever is, is not," is the maxim of the anarchist, as often as anything comes across him in the shape of a law which he happens not to like."

"England is the mother of parliaments."

"I am for Peace, for Retrenchment, and for Reform,—thirty years ago the great watchwords of the great Liberal Party."

"Well, will anybody deny now that the Government at Washington, as regards its own people, is the strongest government in the world at this hour? And for this simple reason, that it is based on the will, and the good will, of an instructed people."

"So then because some towns in England are not represented, America is to have no representative at all. They are "our children"; put when children ask for bread we are not to give a stone."

"And having looked to Government for bread, on the very first scarcity they will turn and bite the hand that fed them."

"When bad men combine, the good must associate."

"Support a compatriot against a native, however the former may blunder or plunder."

"Nothing's more dull and negligent Than an old, lazy government, That knows no interest of state, But such as serves a present strait."

"A power has arisen up in the Government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks."

"Consider in fact, a body of six hundred and fifty-eight miscellaneous persons, set to consult about "business," with twenty-seven millions, mostly fools, assiduously listening to them, and checking and criticising them. Was there ever, since the world began, will there ever be till the world end, any "business" accomplished in these circumstances?"

"There are but two ways of paying debt—increase of industry in raising income, increase of thrift in laying out."

"And the first thing I would do in my government, I would have nobody to control me, I would be absolute; and who but I: now, he that is absolute, can do what he likes; he that can do what he likes, can take his pleasure; he that can take his pleasure, can be content; and he that can be content, has no more to desire; so the matter's over."

"There was a State without kings or nobles; there was a church without a bishop; there was a people governed by grave magistrates which it had elected, and equal laws which it had framed."

"Who's in or out, who moves this grand machine, Nor stirs my curiosity nor spleen: Secrets of state no more I wish to know Than secret movements of a puppet show: Let but the puppets move, I've my desire, Unseen the hand which guides the master wire."

"They have proved themselves offensive partisans and unscrupulous manipulators of local party management."

"Though the people support the government the government should not support the people."

"I have considered the pension list of the republic a roll of honor."

"The communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness which assiduously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of misrule."

"Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving how not to do it."

"The country has, I think, made up its mind to close this career of plundering and blundering."

"The divine right of kings may have been a plea for feeble tyrants, but the divine right of government is the keystone of human progress, and without it governments sink into police, and a nation is degraded into a mob."

"A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy."

"Individualities may form communities, but it is institutions alone that can create a nation."

"For where's the State beneath the Firmament, That doth excell the Bees for Government?"

"Shall we judge a country by the majority, or by the minority? By the minority, surely."

"Fellow-citizens: Clouds and darkness are around Him; His pavilion is dark waters and thick clouds; justice and judgment are the establishment of His throne; mercy and truth shall go before His face! Fellow citizens! God reigns and the Government at Washington lives."

"When constabulary duty's to be done A policeman's lot is not a happy one."

"Perish commerce. Let the constitution live!"

"Unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation."

"No sooner does he hear any of his brothers mention reform or retrenchment, than up he jumps."

"There was one species of despotism under which he had long groaned, and that was petticoat government."

"Of the various executive abilities, no one excited more anxious concern than that of placing the interests of our fellow-citizens in the hands of honest men, with understanding sufficient for their stations. No duty is at the same time more difficult to fulfill. The knowledge of character possessed by a single individual is of necessity limited. To seek out the best through the whole Union, we must resort to the information which from the best of men, acting disinterestedly and with the purest motives, is sometimes incorrect."

"The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth."

"Excise, a hateful tax levied upon commodities."

"What constitutes a state? . . . . . . Men who their duties know, But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain. . . . . . . And sovereign law, that state's collected will, O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill."

"The Americans equally detest the pageantry of a king and the supercilious hypocrisy of a bishop."

"Salus populi suprema lex."

"This end (Robespierre's theories) was the representative sovereignty of all the citizens concentrated in an election as extensive as the people themselves, and acting by the people, and for the people in an elective council, which should be all the government."

"Misera contribuens plebs."

"The Congress of Vienna does not walk, but it dances."

"I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms, by no means excluding females."

"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free."

"If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might in a moral point of view, justify revolution—certainly would if such a right were a vital one."

"That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

"All your strength is in your union, All your danger is in discord."

"L'état!—c'est moi!"

"That is the best government which desires to make the people happy, and knows how to make them happy."

"The Commons, faithful to their system, remained in a wise and masterly inactivity."

"The government of the Union, then, is emphatically and truly a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them and for their benefit."

"The all-men power; government over all, by all, and for the sake of all."

"To make a bank, was a great plot of state; Invent a shovel, and be a magistrate."

"States are not made, nor patched; they grow: Grow slow through centuries of pain, And grow correctly in the main; But only grow by certain laws, Of certain bits in certain jaws."

"Hope nothing from foreign governments. They will never be really willing to aid you until you have shown that you are strong enough to conquer without them."

"If the prince of a State love benevolence, he will have no opponent in all the empire."

"Unearned increment."

"La corruption de chaque gouvernement commence presque toujours par celle des principes."

"Les républiques finissent par le luxe; les monarchies, par la pauvreté."

"Nescis, mi fili, quantilla sapientia regitur mundus."

"There is what I call the American idea. * * * This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy,—that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom."

"First there is the democratic idea: that all men are endowed by their creator with certain natural rights; that these rights are alienable only by the possessor thereof; that they are equal in men; that government is to organize these natural, unalienable and equal rights into institutions designed for the good of the governed, and therefore government is to be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. Here government is development, not exploitation."

"Democracy is direct self-government, over all the people, for all the people, by all the people."

"Slavery is in flagrant violation of the institutions of America—direct government—over all the people, by all the people, for all the people."

"In principatu commutando civium Nil præter domini nomen mutant pauperes."

"Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest."

"Themistocles said, "The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you.""

"The government will take the fairest of names, but the worst of realities—mob rule."

"The right divine of kings to govern wrong."

"He shall rule them with a rod of iron."

"The labor unions shall have a square deal, and the corporations shall have a square deal, and in addition, all private citizens shall have a square deal."

"Le despotisme tempéré par l'assassinat, c'est notre magna charta."

"Say to the seceded States—Wayward sisters, depart in peace!"

"The Pope sends for him … and (says he) "We will be merry as we were before, for thou little thinkest what a little foolery governs the whole world.""

"Invisa numquam imperia retinentur diu."

"What a man that would be had he a particle of gall or the least knowledge of the value of red tape. As Curran said of Grattan, "he would have governed the world.""

"Men who prefer any load of infamy, however great, to any pressure of taxation, however light."

"The schoolboy whips his taxed top, the beardless youth manages his taxed horse, with a taxed bridle, on a taxed road; and the dying Englishman, pouring his medicine, which has paid seven per cent., flings himself back on his chintz bed, which has paid twenty-two per cent., and expires in the arms of an apothecary who has paid a license of a hundred pounds for the privilege of putting him to death."

"Ill can he rule the great that cannot reach the small."

"Omnium consensu capax imperii, nisi imperasset."

"In the parliament of man, the Federation of the world."

"Et errat longe mea quidem sententia Qui imperium credit gravius esse aut stabilius, Vi quod fit, quam illud quod amicitia adjungitur."

"We preach Democracy in vain while Tory and Conservative can point to the opposite side of the Atlantic and say: "There are Nineteen millions of the human race free absolutely, every man heir to the throne, governing themselves—the government of all, by all, for all; but instead of being a consistent republic it is one widespread confederacy of free men for the enslavement of a nation of another complexion.""

"Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people."

"Hæ tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem Parcere subjectis et debellare superbos."

"Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair; the rest is in the hands of God."

"A National debt is a National blessing."

"The people's government made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people."

"When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union; on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent; on a land rent with civil feuds, or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood!"

"He touched the dead corpse of Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet."

"We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch-tower of liberty."

"[He would do his duty as he saw it] without regard to scraps of paper called constitutions."

"No man ever saw the people of whom he forms a part. No man ever saw a government. I live in the midst of the Government of the United States, but I never saw the Government of the United States. Its personnel extends through all the nations, and across the seas, and into every corner of the world in the persons of the representatives of the United States in foreign capitals and in foreign centres of commerce."

"Wherever magistrates were appointed from among those who complied with the injunctions of the laws, he (Socrates) considered the government to be an aristocracy."

"Our present political position has been achieved in a manner unprecedented in the history of nations. It illustrates the American idea that governments rest on the consent of the governed, and that it is the right of the people to alter or abolish them at will whenever they become destructive of the ends for which they were established."

"My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy."

"Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives."

"The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed."

"The people who own the country ought to govern it."

"The genius of Republican liberty, seems to demand on one side, not only that all power should be derived from the people; but, that those entrusted with it should be kept in dependence on the people, by a short duration of their appointments; and, that, even during this short period, the trust should be placed not in a few, but in a number of hands. Stability, on the contrary, requires, that the hands, in which power is lodged, should continue for a length of time, the same. A frequent change of men will result from a frequent return of electors, and a frequent change of measures, from a frequent change of men; whilst energy in Government requires not only a certain duration of power, but the execution of it by a single hand."

"Democratic and aristocratic states are not in their own nature free. Political liberty is to be found only in moderate governments; and even in these it is not always found. It is there only when there is no abuse of power. But constant experience shows us that every man who has power is inclined to abuse it; he goes until he finds limits. Is it not strange, though true, to say that virtue itself has need of limits?. To prevent this abuse, it is necessary that, by the arrangement of things, power shall stop power. A government may be so constituted, as no man shall be compelled to do things to which the law does not oblige him, nor forced to abstain from things which the law permits."

"In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty."

"In every government there are three sorts of power: the legislative; the executive in respect to things dependent on the law of nations; and the executive in regard to matters that depend on the civil law. By virtue of the first, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws, and amends or abrogates those that have been already enacted. By the second, he makes peace or war, sends or receives embassies, establishes the public security, and provides against invasions. By the third, he punishes criminals, or determines the disputes that arise between individuals. The latter we shall call the judiciary power, and the other, simply, the executive power of the state. When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. Again, there is no liberty if the judiciary power be not separated from the legislative and executive. Were it joined with the legislative, the life and liberty of the subject would be exposed to arbitrary control; for the judge would be then the legislator. Were it joined to the executive power, the judge might behave with violence and oppression. There would be an end of every thing, were the same man, or the same body, whether of the nobles or of the people, to exercise those three powers, that of enacting laws, that of executing the public resolutions, and of trying the causes of individuals. The executive power ought to be in the hands of a monarch, because this branch of government, having need of dispatch, is better administered by one than by many: on the other hand, whatever depends on the legislative power, is oftentimes better regulated by many than by a single person. But, if there were no monarch, and the executive power should be committed to a certain number of persons, selected from the legislative body, there would be an end of liberty, by reason the two powers would be united; as the same persons would sometimes possess, and would be always able to possess, a share in both."

"In order to lay a due foundation for that separate and distinct exercise of the different powers of government, which to a certain extent is admitted on all hands to be essential to the preservation of liberty, it is evident that each department should have a will of its own; and consequently should be so constituted that the members of each should have as little agency as possible in the appointment of the members of the others. Were this principle rigorously adhered to, it would require that all the appointments for the supreme executive, legislative, and judiciary magistracies should be drawn from the same fountain of authority, the people, through channels having no communication whatever with one another. Perhaps such a plan of constructing the several departments would be less difficult in practice than it may in contemplation appear. Some difficulties, however, and some additional expense would attend the execution of it. Some deviations, therefore, from the principle must be admitted. In the constitution of the judiciary department in particular, it might be inexpedient to insist rigorously on the principle: first, because peculiar qualifications being essential in the members, the primary consideration ought to be to select that mode of choice which best secures these qualifications; secondly, because the permanent tenure by which the appointments are held in that department, must soon destroy all sense of dependence on the authority conferring them. It is equally evident, that the members of each department should be as little dependent as possible on those of the others, for the emoluments annexed to their offices. Were the executive magistrate, or the judges, not independent of the legislature in this particular, their independence in every other would be merely nominal."

"It is important, likewise, that the habits of thinking in a free Country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration, to confine themselves within their respective Constitutional Spheres; avoiding in the exercise of the Powers of one department to encroach upon another."

"It is obvious that the executive power could not proceed from the Parliament, made of two Houses and holding the legislative power, or we would have a mixing of powers in which the government would soon be nothing more than an makeshift of delegations. Certainly, during the current transitional period, we had to have the President of the provisional government elected by the National Constituent Assembly, because from a clean slate there was no other acceptable means to designate him. But this can only be a momentary arrangement. Truly, unity, cohesion and the internal discipline of the government of France must be sacred things, or the very direction of the country will become powerless and disqualified. How could this unity, this cohesion and this discipline be maintained if the executive power came from the other power which it must balance, and if each of the members of the government, which is collectively responsible to the entire national representation, was, at his post, only the representant of a party?"

"One must give one power a ballast, so to speak, to put it in a position to resist another."

"The laws of Rome had wisely divided public power among a large number of magistracies, which supported, checked and tempered each other. Since they all had only limited power, every citizen was qualified for them, and the people — seeing many persons pass before them one after the other — did not grow accustomed to any in particular. But in these times the system of the republic changed. Through the people the most powerful men gave themselves extraordinary commissions — which destroyed the authority of the people and magistrates, and placed all great matters in the hands of one man, or a few."

"The doctrine of the separation of powers was adopted by the Convention of 1787, not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was, not to avoid friction, but, by means of the inevitable friction incident to the distribution of the governmental powers among three departments, to save the people from autocracy."

"The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

"Two conditions are essential for an absolute independence of powers. First, that the source from which they emanate is one; second, that they all exert upon each other reciprocal vigilance. The people would not be sovereign, if one of the constituted powers that represent them, did not emanate immediately from them; and there would be no independence if one of them was the creator of the other. Give the legislature, for example, the right to appoint members of the executive power; it will exert on them a fatal influence, and political liberty will no longer exist. If the legislature appoints the judges, it would influence the judgments and there would be no civil liberty. Thus in England, where the executive power exerts a marked influence on the legislature, political liberty is considerably diminished. The judicial power, whatever appointed by the executive, is immune from its fatal influence because the people compose the jury and the judges are irremovable; so civil liberty has not yet received almost no attack."

"To admit then a right in the House of Representatives to demand, and to have as a matter of course, all the Papers respecting a negotiation with a foreign power, would be to establish a dangerous precedent. It does not occur that the inspection of the papers asked for, can be relative to any purpose under the cognizance of the House of Representatives, except that of an impeachment, which the resolution has not expressed. I repeat, that I have no disposition to withhold any information which the duty of my station will permit, or the public good shall require to be disclosed: and in fact, all the Papers affecting the negotiation with Great Britain were laid before the Senate, when the Treaty itself was communicated for their consideration and advice. The course which the debate has taken, on the resolution of the House, leads to some observations on the mode of making treaties under the Constitution of the United States."

"One of the most prevalent ideological mantras of Western capitalism is that the market should rule. But as the latest health and economic crises demonstrate, capitalists soon forget their worship of the market when times get tough. They scream for government money, and plenty of it. It turns out that "the market" is fine when it comes to whipping workers to accept lower wages, but when it comes to lower profits, the market can go hang. [...] Every student with the misfortune to have studied economics at school or university will know that "the market" is the god before which we must all kneel. Markets bring s and producers together to ensure an equilibrium of , the textbooks tell us. We may all be individuals each pursuing our own private interests, but this selfish endeavour miraculously results in an optimum outcome for all. You don’t even have to step inside a classroom to have received this lesson. It’s rammed home in normal times in every newspaper, in every news bulletin on the TV, in every politician’s speech. Just listen to them. Governments can’t expand spending on Newstart because “the markets” won’t allow it. [...] The fact that governments across the are now prepared to spend trillions of dollar to save the from collapse only confirms that the world economy cannot be left safely in the hands of "the market". And, the situation clearly confirms that when the capitalist class and governments deem it necessary to save their system, lots of measures they once denounced as "unaffordable", not permitted by the condition of "the economy", are actually affordable and permitted. Governments can act when required. The ideological justifications of yesterday are revealed as threadbare. But nor are government interventions of this nature geared towards the interests of the working class, only the interests of the bosses."

"Notwithstanding reports that all economists are now Keynesians and that we all support a big increase in the burden of government, we the undersigned do not believe that more government spending is a way to improve economic performance. More government spending by Hoover and Roosevelt did not pull the United States economy out of the Great Depression in the 1930s. More government spending did not solve Japan’s “lost decade” in the 1990s. As such, it is a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government spending will help the U.S. today. To improve the economy, policymakers should focus on reforms that remove impediments to work, saving, investment and production. Lower tax rates and a reduction in the burden of government are the best ways of using fiscal policy to boost growth."

"The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence."

"It is the duty of those serving the people in public place closely to limit public expenditures to the actual needs of the government economically administered, because this bounds the right of the government to extract tribute from the earnings of labor or the property of the citizen, and because public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. We should never be ashamed of the simplicity and prudential economies which are best suited to the operation of a republican form of government and most compatible with the mission of the American people. Those who are selected for a limited time to manage public affairs are still of the people, and may do much by their example to encourage, consistently with the dignity of their official functions, that plain way of life which among their fellow-citizens aids integrity and promotes thrift and prosperity."

"The appropriation of public money always is perfectly lovely until some one is asked to pay the bill. If we are to have a billion dollars of navy, half a billion of farm relief, [etc.] … the people will have to furnish more revenue by paying more taxes. It is for them, through their Congress, to decide how far they wish to go."

"I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical form."

"Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody."

"A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."

"So that here we have, really, the compound, the overall philosophy of Lincoln: in all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with the people's money or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative—and don't be afraid to use the word. And so today, Republicans come forward with programs in which there are such words as "balanced budgets," and "cutting expenditures," and all the kind of thing that means this economy must be conservative, it must be solvent. But they also come forward and say we are concerned with every American's health, with a decent house for him, we are concerned that he will have a chance for health, and his children for education. We are going to see that he has power available to him. We are going to see that everything takes place that will enrich his life and let him as an individual, hard-working American citizen, have full opportunity to do for his children and his family what any decent American should want to do."

"The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public moneys."

"We are endeavoring, too, to reduce the government to the practice of a rigorous economy, to avoid burdening the people, and arming the magistrate with a patronage of money, which might be used to corrupt and undermine the principles of our government."

"Every government program is backed up finally by men with guns. If it weren’t, no one would ask the government to do what individuals have refused to do voluntarily."

"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health, social and economic crisis. Historical comparisons are few, particularly in recent decades. This tragedy constitutes nothing less than a trial for all humanity. [...] The pandemic, in other words, is now testing the capacity of our political and economic systems to cope with a global problem situated at the level of our individual interdependence, which is to say at the very foundation of our social life. [...] We equally depend on the state to help businesses of all sizes endure this trial by providing them with the financial assistance and guaranteed loans they require in order to avoid bankruptcy and retain as much of their as possible. States no longer have any qualms about spending without limits in order to save the economy ⁠— "whatever it takes!" ⁠— while just weeks ago states opposed any request to increase hospital staff, hospital beds, or emergency services, out of its obsessive concern for budgetary constraint and limiting the public debt. States have since rediscovered the virtues of interventionism, at least when it comes to funding and shoring up the . One of the most ambitious stimulus plans to date has been implemented by Germany. Their plan constitutes an abrupt break with the dogmas that have been the norm since the beginning of the ."

"No; no; not a sixpence."

"That most delicious of all privileges—spending other people's money."

"There is no doubt that many expensive national projects may add to our prestige or serve science. But none of them must take precedence over human needs. As long as Congress does not revise its priorities, our crisis is not just material, it is a crisis of the spirit."

"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."

"Any Government, like any family, can for a year spend a little more than it earns. But you and I know that a continuation of that habit means the poorhouse."

"If the Nation is living within its income, its credit is good. If, in some crises, it lives beyond its income for a year or two, it can usually borrow temporarily at reasonable rates. But if, like a spendthrift, it throws discretion to the winds, and is willing to make no sacrifice at all in spending; if it extends its taxing to the limit of the people's power to pay and continues to pile up deficits, then it is on the road to bankruptcy."

"There are four categories of voting on the floor of the Senate. The first are those who have been described as ones who can hear the farthest drum before the cry of a single hungry child. Then there is the group who can hear every child, whether he is hungry or not, before they can hear a single drum. Then you have a third group, who say, "Nothing can happen to the almighty dollar, so we will vote for all the children and all the drums." The time has come when we must have some priorities with respect to the way we are allocating our steadily decreasing resources, else it should be clear to everybody—that the economy of the United States could well be destroyed."

"If simply printing and spending more money would cure our problems we should by now be one of the wealthiest nations in the Western world.—In the lifetime of the last Labour Government the amount of money in the economy went up by £20 thousand million but the number of jobs did not increase. Indeed, unemployment doubled and prices more than doubled too.—In the last three years (1976–79) the amount of money in the economy went up by 50%; but yet only 4%; went into output, the rest into higher prices and imports. The record is clear, printing money doesn't create jobs, it only creates more inflation. But there is another word for printing money—they call it “reflection”. It is a cosy word but a fraudulent device. It cuts the value of every pound in circulation, of every pound the thrifty have saved. It means spending money you can't afford, haven't earned and haven't got. You would accept that it is neither moral nor responsible for a family to live beyond its means. Equally it is neither moral nor responsible for a Government to spend beyond the nation's means, even for services which may be desirable. So we must curb public spending to amounts that can be financed by taxation at tolerable levels and borrowing at reasonable rates of interest."

"Countries, therefore, when lawmaking falls exclusively to the lot of the poor cannot hope for much economy in public expenditure; expenses will always be considerable, either because taxes cannot touch those who vote for them or because they are assessed in a way to prevent that."

"He smote the rock of the national resources, and abundant streams of revenue gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of the Public Credit, and it sprung upon its feet. The fabled birth of Minerva, from the brain of Jove, was hardly more sudden or more perfect than the financial system of the United States, as it burst forth from the conceptions of Alexander Hamilton."

"[A] licentious people is not going to sustain republican government. We've got to make sure that republican government, government not only of the people as all government is but by and for the people doesn't perish from the Earth. If we lose it here, it's not as if it's going to be restarted somewhere else."

"Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?" "A Republic, if you can keep it."

"The Republic needed to be passed through chastening, purifying fires of adversity and suffering: so these came and did their work and the verdure of a new national life springs greenly, luxuriantly, from their ashes."

"You and your descendants have to ascertain whether this great mass will hold together under the forms of a republic, and the despotic reality of universal suffrage; whether state rights will hold out against centralisation, without separation, whether centralisation will get the better, without actual or disguised monarchy; whether shifting corruption is better than a permanent bureaucracy; and as population thickens in your great cities, and the pressure of what is felt, the gaunt spectre of pauperism will stalk among you, and communism and socialism will claim to be heard."

"But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all republicans—we are federalists."

"In truth, the abuses of monarchy had so much filled all the space of political contemplation, that we imagined everything republican which was not monarchy. We had not yet penetrated to the mother principle, that "governments are republican only in proportion as they embody the will of their people, and execute it." Hence, our first constitutions had really no leading principles in them. But experience and reflection have but more and more confirmed me in the particular importance of the equal representation then proposed."

"Democracy, republics: What do these words signify? What have they changed in the world? Have men become better, more loyal, kinder? Are the people happier? All goes on as before, as always. Illusions, illusions. Besides, one should consider the interest of a nation before subverting it with words. Democracy is necessary in some cases and We believe some African peoples might adopt it. But in other cases it is harmful, a mistake."

"When a monarchy gradually transforms itself into a republic, the executive power there preserves titles, honors, respect, and even money long after it has lost the reality of power. The English, having cut off the head of one of their kings and chased another off the throne, still go on their knees to address the successors of those princes. On the other hand, when a republic falls under one man's yoke, the ruler's demeanor remains simple, unaffected, and modest, as if he had not already been raised above everybody."

"Just as people are born, live a time, and die by diseases or old age, in the same way republics are formed, flower a few centuries, and persih finally by the audacity of a citizen, or by the weapons of their enemies. All has their period; all empires, and largest monarchies even, have only so much time: the republics feel continually that this time will arrive, and they look at any too-powerful family as the carriers of a disease which will give them the blow of death."

"A republic is, in essence, what a monarchy is not. That, in short, is the argument, based on a very long history of states called republics, and thinkers called republicans, who learned from each other. A republic is a state that has many rulers, instead of one, most of them independently elected rather than appointed. A republic is a state where most of the public business must perforce be publicly aired, since these many magistrates naturally differ about that business and thus cannot conduct it without robust argument. Though it is still said in our civic pedagogy that a republic is something called a "representative democracy," many of history's republicans have not been representative, and many have been far from democratic, including some which were undemocratic precisely by virtue of being representative. What all republics have been is polyarchal, ruled by the pluribus instead of the uno."

"Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination: on the contrary, that under no form of government, will laws be better supported — liberty and property better secured — or happiness be more effectually dispensed to mankind."

"Republicanism did not die away. They remain to temper the scramble for private wealth and happiness and they continue to underlie for many of our ideals and aspirations: for our belief in equality and our dislike of pretension and privilege; our deep yearning for individual autonomy and freedom from all ties of dependency; our periodic hopes, expressed, for example, in the election of military heroes and in the mugwump and progressive movements, that some political leaders might rise above parties and become truly disinterested umpires and deliberative representatives; our long-held conviction that farming is morally healthier and freer of selfish marketplace concerns than other activities; our preoccupation with the fragility of the republic and its liability to corruption; and, finally, our remarkable obsession with our own national virtue-an obsession that still bewilders the rest of the world."

"Though the mere opinion of an Attorney- or Solicitor-General ought not to be cited, yet coupled with the fact, it may have some weight as showing the general sense of professional men."

"At common law, the Attorney-General is, when he is exercising his functions as an officer of the Crown, in no case that I know of a Court in the ordinary sense."

"The regular way of pardons is by the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General. &c. They are men of the law, and might stop it in their office, and the rest of the offices, &c . . . . To pardon before trial, when the King knows not what fact he is to pardon, is a dangerous precedent. . . . The King cannot pardon a man, an impeachment depending."

"As Attorney General, one of my top priorities is protecting consumers from fraud and deception. When corporations do not play by the rules, my team and I take action."

"[The ministry said it is not allowed to] interfere in, or comment on, tribunal processes or decisions"

"I think that in the emergency situations like we have with potentially weapons of mass destruction, the agent in the field needs as much flexibility as he can and the decision of probable cause as to what’s going to occur needs to be made not in headquarters and not by the attorney general and not by a special court in Washington, but by the agent in the field who needs to respond immediately."

"I wish to say a word or two about the position of the Attorney-General, because in my judgment it is of importance in this case, and his position appears likely to be lost sight of. Everybody knows that he is the head of the English Bar. We know that he has had from the earliest times to perform high judicial functions which are left to his discretion to decide. For example, where a man who is tried for his life and convicted alleges that there is error on the record, he cannot take advantage of that error unless he obtains the fiat of the Attorney-General, and no Court in the Kingdom has any controlling jurisdiction over him. That perhaps is the strongest case that can be put as to the position of the Attorney-General in exercising judicial functions. Another case in which the Attorney-General is preeminent is the power to enter a nolle prosequi in a criminal case.1 I do not say that when a case is before a Judge a prosecutor may not ask the Judge to allow the case to be withdrawn, and the Judge may do so if he is satisfied that there is no case; but the Attorney-General alone has power to enter a nolle prosequi, and that power is not subject to any control. Another case is that of a criminal information at the suit of the Attorney-General, a practice which has, I am sorry to say, fallen into disuse. The issue of such an information is entirely in the discretion of the Attorney-General, and no one can set such an information aside. There are other cases to which I could refer to be found in old and in recent statutes, but I have said enough to show the high judicial functions which the Attorney-General performs."

"Where the King has no share, and the King's Serjeant or Attorney-General prosecute not, and the King's name is not so much as mentioned, and only by the Commons of England, which the Courts Westminster cannot punish; it is you that have the interest in the suit, and all the Commons of England."

"It is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens: upon the same principle, if it is advantageous to place the supreme power in some particular persons, they should be appointed to be only guardians, and the servants of the laws."

"The Invariability of Law. That we live in a realm of law, that we are surrounded by laws that we cannot break, this is a truism. Yet when the fact is recognised in a real and vital way, and when it is seen to be a fact in the mental and moral world as much as in the physical, a certain sense of helplessness is apt to overpower us, as though we felt ourselves in the grip of some mighty Power, that, seizing us, whirls us away whither it will. The very reverse of this is in reality the case, for the mighty Power, when it is understood, will obediently carry us whither we will; all forces in Nature can be used in proportion as they are understood “Nature is conquered by obedience ” — and her resistless energies are at our bidding as soon as we, by knowledge, work with them and not against them. We can choose out of her boundless stores the forces that serve our purpose in momentum, in direction, and so on, and their very invariability becomes the guarantee of our success. P. 6"

"That law should be as invariable in the mental and moral worlds as in the physical is to be expected, since the universe is the emanation of the One, and what we call Law is but the expression of the Divine Nature. As there is one Life emanating all, so there is one Law sustaining all ; the worlds rest on this rock of the Divine Nature as on a secure, immutable foundation. P. 8"

"Such is an outline of the great Law of Karma and of its workings, by a knowledge of which a man may accelerate his evolution, by the utilization of which a man may free himself from bondage, and become, long ere his race has trodden its course, one of the Helpers... of the World. A deep and steady conviction of the truth of this Law gives to life an immovable serenity and a perfect fearlessness: nothing can touch us that we have not wrought, nothing can injure us that we have not merited. And as everything that we have sown must ripen into harvest in due season, and must be reaped, it is idle to lament over the reaping when it is painful; it may as well be done now as at any future time, since it cannot be evaded, and, once done, it cannot return to trouble us again."

"Under the Trump administration, aggressive rhetoric against the Venezuelan government has ratcheted up to a more extreme and threatening level, with Trump administration officials talking of “military action” and condemning Venezuela, along with Cuba and Nicaragua, as part of a “troika of tyranny.” Problems resulting from Venezuelan government policy have been worsened by US economic sanctions, illegal under the Organization of American States and the United Nations ― as well as US law and other international treaties and conventions. These sanctions have cut off the means by which the Venezuelan government could escape from its economic recession, while causing a dramatic falloff in oil production and worsening the economic crisis, and causing many people to die because they can’t get access to life-saving medicines. Meanwhile, the US and other governments continue to blame [Nicolas Maduro and] the Venezuelan government ― solely ― for the economic damage, even that caused by the US sanctions."

"Now the US and its allies... by recognizing National Assembly President Juan Guaido as the new president of Venezuela ― something illegal under the OAS Charter ― the Trump administration has sharply accelerated Venezuela’s political crisis in the hopes of dividing the Venezuelan military and further polarizing the populace, forcing them to choose sides. The obvious, and sometimes stated goal, is to force Maduro out via a coup d’etat."

"By the time of Augustine (354-430 AD), the Roman Empire had become an Empire of lies. It still pretended to uphold the rule of law, to protect the people from the Barbarian invaders, to maintain the social order. But all that had become a bad joke for the citizens of an empire by then reduced to nothing more than a giant military machine dedicated to oppressing the poor in order to maintain the privileges of the rich. The Empire itself had become a lie: that it existed because of the favor of the Gods who rewarded the Romans because of their moral virtues. Nobody could believe in that anymore: it was the breakdown of the very fabric of society; the loss of what the ancient called the auctoritas, the trust that citizens had toward their leaders and the institutions of their state."

"A federal judge has breathed new life into questions surrounding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton...and the 2012 attack that killed U.S. officials in Benghazi, Libya....to reassure the American people their government remains committed to transparency and the rule of law..."

"And so, Venezuela becomes a geopolitical battlefield. The country with the largest oil reserves on the planet... No matter what you may think of Nicolas Maduro, this sets a dangerous precedent for every country around the world. It is an absolute violation of international law, sovereignty and self-determination for foreign leaders to determine the presidents of other nations... It’s a violation... Not just OAS charter, but also UN Charter and basic, fundamental tenets of international law, rights to sovereignty, self determination and non intervention..."

"The problem the Great Powers now faced (after world war II) was how to create a process that the world would consider something more than vengeance masquerading as righteousness, something more than “victors’ justice.” The solution was to demonstrate that their prosecutions had a basis in the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties -- in, that is, the already existing laws of war. In the process of designing those prosecutions, they consolidated and advanced the meaning and power of international law itself, a concept particularly needed in a postwar world of atomic weapons and a looming U.S.-Soviet conflict. Three-quarters of a century and many wars and weapon systems later, enforceable international law still remains humanity’s best hope for adjudicating past war crimes and preventing future ones -- but only if great nations like the United States do not declare themselves exceptions to the rule of law."

"On March 18th, Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines became the second country to leave the ICC, where it, like the U.S., is being investigated for possible crimes -- in its case, against its own people. As the Washington Post reports, the country is “under preliminary examination [by the ICC] for thousands of [domestic drug war] killings since Duterte rose to the presidency in 2016.” In its menacing rejection of the court, the Trump administration is turning its back on the system of international law and justice the United States helped establish at Nuremberg. The rule of law must not hold only, as hotelier Leona Helmsley once said about taxes, for “the little people.” If Donald Trump had truly wanted to “make America great again,” he would have recognized that international law is not just for the little countries. The greater a world power, the more consequential is its submission to the rule of law. The attacks of John Bolton and Mike Pompeo on the ICC, however, simply represent a new spate of lawless actions from a lawless administration in an increasingly lawless era in Washington."

"A Society that prohibits the capacity to speak in truth extinguishes the capacity to live in justice... the battle for Julian's liberty has always been much more than the persecution of a publisher. It is the most important battle for press freedom of our era. And if we lose this battle, it will be devastating, not only for Julian and his family, but for us... Tyrannies invert the rule of law. They turn the law into an instrument of injustice. They cloak their crimes in a faux legality. They use the decorum of the courts and trials, to mask their criminality."

"Those such as Julian who expose that criminality to the public are dangerous, for without the pretext of legitimacy the tyranny loses credibility and has nothing left in its arsenal but fear, coercion and violence... The long campaign against Julian and WikiLeaks is a window into the collapse of the rule of law, the rise of what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of "inverted totalitarianism," a form of totalitarianism that maintains the fictions of the old capitalist democracy, including its institutions, iconography, patriotic symbols and rhetoric, but internally has surrendered total control to the dictates of global corporations."

"What we are demanding on the political spectrum is in fact conservative: It is the restoration of the rule of law. It is simple and basic. It should not, in a functioning democracy, be incendiary. But living in truth in a despotic system is the supreme act of defiance. This truth terrifies those in power. The criminal ruling class has all of us locked in its death grip... It has abolished the rule of law. It obscures and falsifies the truth. It seeks the consolidation of its obscene wealth and power. And so, to quote the Queen of Hearts, metaphorically of course, I say, "Off with their heads.""

"Our governments feel threatened by Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, and Julian Assange, because they are whistleblowers, journalists, and human rights activists who have provided solid evidence for the abuse, corruption, and war crimes of the powerful, for which they are now being systematically defamed and persecuted. They are the political dissidents of the West, and their persecution is today’s witch-hunt, because they threaten the privileges of unsupervised state power that has gone out of control."

"The cases of Manning, Snowden, Assange and others are the most important test of our time for the credibility of Western rule of law and democracy and our commitment to human rights. In all these cases, it is not about the person, the character or possible misconduct of these dissidents, but about how our governments deal with revelations about of their own misconduct. How many soldiers have been held accountable for the massacre of civilians shown in the video “Collateral Murder”? How many agents for the systematic torture of terror suspects? How many politicians and CEOs for the corrupt and inhumane machinations that have been brought to light by our dissidents? That’s what this is about. It is about the integrity of the rule of law, the credibility of our democracies and, ultimately, about our own human dignity and the future of our children."

"People today may believe that the men held in Guantanamo are “guilty” dangerous terrorists. But the majority of those still detained have never been charged and convicted of a crime. America’s foundational belief in due process and the rule of law did not protect these men from being held in Guantanamo without charges. Nor did it protect them from torture. The rule of law also did not matter when the U.S. military purchased some of the men held in Guantanamo by paying bounties to Afghan and Pakistani soldiers."

"The Deep State is reacting with shock at how this right-wing real estate grifter has been able to drive other countries to defend themselves by dismantling the U.S.-centered world order. To rub it in, he is using Bush and Reagan-era Neocon arsonists, John Bolton and now Elliott Abrams, to fan the flames in Venezuela. It is almost like a black political comedy. The world of international diplomacy is being turned inside-out. A world where there is no longer even a pretense that we might adhere to international norms, let alone laws or treaties. The Neocons who Trump has appointed are accomplishing what seemed unthinkable not long ago: Driving China and Russia together... They also are driving Germany and other European countries into the Eurasian orbit..."

"Any international system of control requires the rule of law. It may be a morally lawless exercise of ruthless power imposing predatory exploitation, but it is still The Law. And it needs courts to apply it (backed by police power to enforce it and punish violators). Here’s the first legal contradiction in U.S. global diplomacy: The United States always has resisted letting any other country have any voice in U.S. domestic policies, law-making or diplomacy. That is what makes America “the exceptional nation.” But for seventy years its diplomats have pretended that its superior judgment promoted a peaceful world (as the Roman Empire claimed to be)..."

"Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton erupted in fury, warning in September that: “The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,” adding that the UN International Court must not be so bold as to investigate “Israel or other U.S. allies.” That prompted a senior judge, Christoph Flügge from Germany, to resign in protest... The original inspiration of the Court – to use the Nuremburg laws that were applied against German Nazis to bring similar prosecution against any country or officials found guilty of committing war crimes – had already fallen into disuse with the failure to indict the authors of the Chilean coup, Iran-Contra or the U.S. invasion of Iraq for war crimes."

"As we reflect, on Taiwan’s Judicial Day, on the rule of law, we remember that since the expression was coined in the 17th century, it was connected with freedom of religion or belief, although this idea was not fully developed at the time. Today, we should repeat and affirm that there is no rule of law without respect for religious and spiritual minorities."

"We are concerned about what the US and its closest allies are doing with respect to Venezuela, brazenly violating all imaginable norms of international law and actually openly pursuing the policy aimed at overthrowing the legitimate government in that Latin American country... Together with other responsible members of the international community, we will do everything to support President Maduro’s legitimate government in upholding the Venezuelan constitution and employing methods to resolve the crisis that are within the constitutional framework... We would like to figure out what the international community could do to prevent another blatant violation of international law and violent regime change... This is what I discussed yesterday with the Iranian foreign minister, who - just like us - wants to find an opportunity for external players to prove themselves useful to the Venezuelan people."

"We hear every day about the beauty of “Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law,” yet the rule of law is ignored in China when it suits Xi Jinping’s party."

"I affirm my support for the rule of law. I am no lawyer and have experience of appearing in court only as a medical witness when I was a government doctor; yet I am aware of the importance that the law plays in protecting the life and limb, liberty and property of the citizen. No man is above the law, not even those in power. Those in power are in fact trustees and their duty is to promote the public good, not self-enrichment."

"The problems with Russia are not just NATO expansion. There were also a process that began with the second Bush administration of withdrawing from all of the arms control — almost all of the arms control agreements that we had concluded with the Soviet Union, the very agreements that had brought the first Cold War to an end.... In effect, what the United States did after the end of the Cold War was they reversed the diplomacy that we had used to end the Cold War, and started sort of doing anything, everything the opposite way. We started, in effect, trying to control other countries, to bring them into what we called the “new world order,” but it was not very orderly. And we also sort of asserted the right to use military whenever we wished. We bombed Serbia in the ’90s without the approval of the U.N. Later, we invaded Iraq, citing false evidence and without any U.N. approval and against the advice not only of Russia but of Germany and France, our allies. So, the United States — I could name a number of others — itself was not careful in abiding by the international laws that we had supported."

"Cooperation must be based upon sound rules. This teaches orderliness; that is, it helps the acquirement of a rhythm. Thus even in daily work are expressed the great laws of the Universe. It is especially needed to become accustomed from childhood to continuous labor. Let the better evolution be built upon labor as the measure of value. Labor must be voluntary. Cooperation must be voluntary."

"Many Senate Democrats are throwing in the towel on the nomination of William Barr for Trump’s attorney general. One would think that Senate Democrats would be appalled at Barr’s long-time unyielding conduct and writings asserting that the President can start any wars he wants even if Congress votes against it! An example of this is the constitutionally undeclared criminal invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush. Barr was also George H.W. Bush’s Attorney General and has been a long-time defender of executive branch lawlessness. One would think that Barr’s insupportable drive for more corporate prisons and more mass incarceration would upset these Senators... Expect the further decay of a Department of Injustice, shielding a chronically lawless President and turning the rule of law on its head."

"The bottom line is that Russia has set forth a cognizable claim under the doctrine of anticipatory collective self defense, devised originally by the U.S. and NATO, as it applies to (Charter of the United Nations) Article 51 which is predicated on fact, not fiction. While it might be in vogue for people, organizations, and governments in the West to embrace the knee-jerk conclusion that Russia’s military intervention constitutes a wanton violation of the United Nations Charter and, as such, constitutes an illegal war of aggression, the uncomfortable truth is that, of all the claims made regarding the legality of pre-emption under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, Russia’s justification for invading Ukraine is on solid legal ground."

"Before I begin, I hope you will allow me a personal reference. Throughout all of the painstaking proceedings of this committee, I as the chairman have been guided by a simple principle, the principle that the law must deal fairly with every man. For me, this is the oldest principle of democracy. It is this simple, but great principle which enables man to live justly and in decency in a free society. It is now almost fifteen centuries since the Emperor Justinian, from whose name the word “justice” is derived, established this principle for the free citizens of Rome. Seven centuries have now passed since the English barons proclaimed the same principle by compelling King John, at the point of the sword, to accept a great doctrine of Magna Carta, the doctrine that the king, like each of his subjects, was under God and the law. Almost two centuries ago the Founding Fathers of the United States reaffirmed and refined this principle so that here all men are under the law, and it is only the people who are sovereign. So speaks our Constitution, and it is under our Constitution, the supreme law of our land, that we proceed through the sole power of impeachment. We have reached the moment when we are ready to debate resolutions whether or not the Committee on the Judiciary should recommend that the House of Representatives adopt articles calling for the impeachment of Richard M. Nixon. Make no mistake about it. This is a turning point, whatever we decide. Our judgment is not concerned with an individual but with a system of constitutional government."

"The rule of law could never be realized if States continued to threaten and disrupt the internal affairs of others, support extremists abroad, and apply unilateral sanctions, Syria’s delegate told the Sixth Committee (Legal) (at the United Nations General Assembly meeting) as it concluded its debate on the rule of law and began consideration... on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization. Syria was experiencing an unimaginable situation, continued that country’s delegate, borne out of calls for legal reform. He decried the unilateral sanctions that had harmed his country’s citizens and demanded that States offering a haven to, and arming and financing terrorists to stop. He urged that the calls by Syria’s authorities to return to the rule of law be heard."

"Theodor Meron, President of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, said he had been 9 years old when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, the country of his birth. Most of his family had been killed by the Nazis because they were Jews. When the war ended, he had emerged lucky to be alive, but profoundly affected by his experiences. While his career had followed a circuitous path, the abiding focus had been to grapple with the brutality of war, and to strive to find ways to end the horrific atrocities committed during armed conflict. Central to any such effort was the need to ensure respect for and adherence to international law, and the humanitarian principles and values of human rights and dignity reflected therein....As for the (UN Security) Council, it must serve as a model. The rule of law hinged on consistency and equality of enforcement; it abhorred selectivity. If one situation involving alleged atrocity crimes was treated with all due attention, and another left to linger in decision‑making limbo, the values underpinning the rule of law would be undermined."

"UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) provides comprehensive rule of law and human rights assistance to support national partners build resilient communities. UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner emphasized that the rule of law is not only about guaranteeing rights, but is an enabler of good governance and sustainable development. He further discussed how strengthening the rule of law is an integral part of UNDP’s work..."

"The situation (in Libya) is utterly dreadful," said Michelle Bachelet on Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. "Tackling the rampant impunity would not only end the suffering of tens of thousands of migrant and refugee women, men and children seeking a better life, but also undercut the parallel illicit economy built on the abuse of these people and help establish the rule of law and national institutions."

"Iran's representative Gholamali Khoshroo: Multilateralism is under attack while unilateralism is getting crystallized, said that the United States, a permanent member of the Security Council and holder of the veto power, is penalizing nations across the entire world, not for violating a Security Council resolution but for abiding by it. In May, the current administration of that country withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (the Iran nuclear deal) and is now targeting the countries that continue their economic ties with Iran in accordance with their obligations under Security Council resolution 2231 (2015)."

"Sanctions which can lead to starvation and medical shortages are not the answer to the crisis in Venezuela, says UN human rights expert Idriss Jazairy. “I am especially concerned to hear reports that these sanctions are aimed at changing the government of Venezuela... Coercion, whether military or economic, must never be used to seek a change in government in a sovereign state. The use of sanctions by outside powers to overthrow an elected government is in violation of all norms of international law... His call echoed comments by the Spokesman for the UN Secretary General, underscoring “the urgent need for all relevant actors to engage in an inclusive and credible political dialogue to address the long crisis facing the country, with full respect for the rule of law and human rights”. The expert drew attention to the UN Declaration on the Principles of International Law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, which urges States to resolve their differences through dialogue and peaceful relations, and to avoid the use of economic, political or other measures to coerce another State in regard to the exercise of its sovereign rights."

"What becomes of the rule of law when the decisions of a Supreme Court are ignored by the Legislature? These legal processes are being ignored by... the right-wing governments of the region that shamelessly carry out orders from Washington and vilify Venezuela... Venezuela should be lauded for defending the rule of law, not tarred with malicious fake news. But its government is sitting on top of the Hemisphere’s largest oil reserves and it repudiates the policies of the cannibalistic neo-liberal capitalism."

"Of course, every state may defend itself, under some circumstances even before an armed attack aimed at it has landed on its territory. But the attack must be imminent, leaving no choice of means and the response must be proportionate to the attack. In the run-up to the Iraq war of 2003, there was the famous 45-minute claim concerning Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction.... the UK argued that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction might reach UK military bases... But there was no evidence that Baghdad was contemplating such an attack and the argument was abandoned. Similarly, there is no suggestion in this instance that Syria was preparing to launch an attack against the US, UK or France."

"The only Christian nation in the world today is the one gathered “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev. 5:9) to be addressed by its king. In his Great Commission, Jesus gave authority to the church to make disciples, not citizens; to proclaim the gospel, not political opinions; to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not in the name of America or a political party; and to teach everything that he delivered, not our own personal and political priorities. And he promised that his presence with us is something that the world can never take away."

"Mike says we began as a Christian nation. We didn’t. Did you miss that day in homeschool Mike? If you don’t know that the Pilgrims came here to get away from the Church of England, then you don’t know literally the first thing about our country."

"Mike says being a Christian nation is our tradition and it’s who we are as a people. It’s not. We’re the people who have a First Amendment which says Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion. And we have an Article Six, which says no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office."

"So I take these people at their word when they say that they think we should be Christian nationalists. But then they have to take John Adams at his word, when he wrote, ‘The government of the United States of America is not in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.’"

"Last October, Congress passed the , putting $700 billion into the hands of the Treasury Department to bail out the nation’s banks at a moment of vanishing credit and peak financial panic. Over the next three months, Treasury poured nearly $239 billion into 296 of the nation’s 8,000 banks. The money went to big banks. It went to small banks. It went to banks that desperately wanted the money. It went to banks that didn’t want the money at all but had been ordered by Treasury to take it anyway. It went to banks that were quite happy to accept the windfall, and used the money simply to buy other banks. Some banks received as much as $45 billion, others as little as $1.5 million. Sixty-seven percent went to eight institutions; 33 percent went to the rest. And that was just the money that went to banks. Tens of billions more went to other companies... But once the money left the building, the government lost all track of it. The Treasury Department knew where it had sent the money, but nothing about what was done with it. Did the money aid the recovery? Was it spent for the purposes Congress intended? Did it save banks from collapse? Paulson’s Treasury Department had no idea, and didn’t seem to care. It never required the banks to explain what they did with this unprecedented infusion of capital."

"One of the most prevalent ideological mantras of Western capitalism is that the market should rule. But as the latest health and economic crises demonstrate, capitalists soon forget their worship of the market when times get tough. They scream for government money, and plenty of it. It turns out that “the market” is fine when it comes to whipping workers to accept lower wages, but when it comes to lower profits, the market can go hang. [...] Faced with the collapse of the capitalist economy, for the second time in a dozen years, with massive bankruptcies on the table and the stock market plunging by more than 30 percent and more to come, fervent advocates of the free market are now embracing government intervention to save their skins. [...] Governments around the world are now laying out money on things that just weeks ago they would have attacked as unaffordable. [...] It’s not that governments have suddenly discovered a big pot of gold in the basement of the . They say that they are taking these measures to both protect and to save the economy. But it’s obvious which takes priority. The new measures constitute the largest bailout bonanza in world history, carried out through state-administered transfers of public wealth and current and future debt to billionaires and : socialisation of losses, privatisation of profits. The outcome will be to further transfer, consolidate and concentrate wealth, just as has occurred since the GFC. While there is discussion about small handouts, nothing serious is being proposed to halt the mass layoffs now gathering steam."

"The rescue plan is better than nothing. It offers limited relief to some of those who desperately need it, and contains an ample fund to help the truly vulnerable: the piteous corporations flocking to the nanny state, hat in hand, hiding their copies of Ayn Rand and pleading once again for rescue by the public after having spent the glory years amassing vast profits and magnifying them with an orgy of stock buybacks. But no need to worry. The slush fund will be monitored by Trump and his Treasury Secretary, who can be trusted to be fair and just. And if they decide to disregard the demands of the new inspector-general and Congress, who is going to do anything about it? Barr’s Justice Department? Impeachment?"

"At the very least, the regular practice of public bailout out of the corporate sector should require stiff enforcement of a ban on stock buybacks, meaningful worker participation in management, an end to the scandalous protectionist measures of the mislabeled "free trade agreements" that guarantee huge profits for Big Pharma while raising drug prices far beyond what they would be under rational arrangements. At least."

"The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global health, social and economic crisis. Historical comparisons are few, particularly in recent decades. This tragedy constitutes nothing less than a trial for all humanity. [...] The pandemic, in other words, is now testing the capacity of our political and economic systems to cope with a global problem situated at the level of our individual interdependence, which is to say at the very foundation of our social life. [...] We equally depend on the state to help businesses of all sizes endure this trial by providing them with the financial assistance and guaranteed loans they require in order to avoid bankruptcy and retain as much of their as possible. States no longer have any qualms about spending without limits in order to save the economy ⁠— "whatever it takes!" ⁠— while just weeks ago states opposed any request to increase hospital staff, hospital beds, or emergency services, out of its obsessive concern for budgetary constraint and limiting the public debt."

"Bail out the people, not the corporations. Bail out the living world, not its destroyers. Let’s not waste our second chance."

"So let me get this straight: Extending additional unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans during a pandemic will make them lazy and lead to socialism, but trillions in bailouts to Wall St. bankers and corporate execs is good for the economy?"

"The banks have said, leave us deregulated, we know how to run things, don't put government in to meddle. Then with that freedom of maneuver they took huge gambles, and even made illegal actions, and then broke the world system. As soon as that happened then they rushed out to say 'bail us out, bail us out, if you don't bail us out, we're too big to fail, you have to save us'. As soon as that happened, they said 'oh, don't regulate us, we know what to do'. And they almost went back to their old story, and the public is standing there, amazed, because we just bailed you out how can you be paying yourself billions of dollars of bonuses again? And the bankers say, 'well we deserve it, what's your problem'? And the problem that the Occupy Wall Street and other protesters have is: you don't deserve it, you nearly broke the system, you gamed the economy, you're paying mega fines, yet you're still in the White House you're going to the state dinners, you're paying yourself huge bonuses, what kind of system is this?"

"When I talk about this in the United States, I'm often attacked, 'oh, you don't believe in the free market economy', I say, how much free market can there be? You say deregulate, the moment the banks get in trouble, you say bail them out, the moment you bail them out, you say go back to deregulation. That's not a free market, that's a game, and we have to get out of the game. We have to get back to grown-up behaviour. ... There is a lot of greed and there's very little accountability... One wonders in the United States sometime whether the government is regulating the banks, or are the banks determining government policy?... Why have the politicians protected them all along? You know why? Very simple. They pay for the politicians."

"It’s mid-October, and the Wall Street bailout that was supposed to save the economy from collapse is a flop... Senate passage came on Thursday, Oct. 2...President Bush signed the $700 billion Wall Street bailout into law... Despite all the media hype about how the bailout measure would quickly steady the stock market, it fell and kept falling. Over the next week, ending Oct. 10, the Dow made history as stocks plunged by 18 percent in five trading days. And what about the ostensible main reason for the humongous bailout in the first place — unfreezing the credit markets? Well, in spite of the enormous media outcry for the bailout to get credit flowing, it didn’t. And the key economic factor in the recession — housing — remained just as stuck as before."

"As the Institute for Policy Studies pointed out on Oct. 1, "A real 'bailout' would target the troubled households of working American families. A $200 billion ‘Main Street Stimulus Package' could bolster the real economy and those left vulnerable by the subprime mortgage meltdown." Components of such a stimulus package could include "a $130 billion annual investment in renewable energy to stimulate good jobs anchored in local economies and reduce our dependency on oil" — and "a $50 billion outlay to help keep people in foreclosed homes through refinancing and creating new homeownership and housing opportunities” — and "a $20 billion aid package to states to address the squeeze on state and local government services that declining tax revenues are now forcing." But that kind of discourse for grassroots economic stimulus hasn’t gotten into the media storyline..."

"Increasingly, our large corporations have been abusing the awesome power that they have amassed. [...] This abuse of power shows itself in many ways. Particularly disturbing have been the efforts of the corporations to conscript the political process for their own benefit through their large financial contributions, both legal and illegal. Although corporate political influence became more pronounced under President Ronald Reagan, it has long exercised a heavy hand over the , the Congress, and the state governments. Former top corporate executives often hold many of the most powerful cabinet and top agency positions in the executive branch of government. Politicians listen when large corporations speak. They have enormous advantages in influencing political decision-makers."

"No abuse of power has so tarnished the corporate image or shown the need for government legislation as the numerous public revelations of wholesale political and foreign bribery that came to light during the 1970s. These revelations are one of the most sordid chapters in American corporate history."

"The destiny was fulfilled which the father of the gods, Enlil of the mountain, had decreed for Gilgamesh: "In nether-earth the darkness will show him a light: of mankind, all that are known, none will leave a monument for generations to come to compare with his. The heroes, the wise men, like the new moon have their waxing and waning. Men will say, 'Who has ever ruled with might and with power like him?' As in the dark month, the month of shadows, so without him there is no light. O Gilgamesh, this was the meaning of your dream. You were given the kingship, such was your destiny, everlasting life was not your destiny. Because of this do not be sad at heart, do not be grieved or oppressed; he has given you power to bind and to loose, to be the darkness and the light of mankind. He has given unexampled supremacy over the people, victory in battle from which no fugitive returns, in forays and assaults from which there is no going back. But do not abuse this power, deal justly with your servants in the palace, deal justly before the face of the Sun."

"Our founders were insightful students of human nature. They feared the abuse of power because they understood that every human being has not only "better angels" in his nature, but also an innate vulnerability to temptation — especially the temptation to abuse power over others."

"Abuse of power has become the norm in Moon's South Korea, and Koreans are taking notice."

"Just four months after winning the April 15 general election by a landslide, and securing 176 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly, Moon Jae-in and his governing Democratic Party (DP) are faced with an alarming change in public sentiment. [...] This drastic decline in public support for the president and the government illustrates not only the volatile nature of South Korea's democracy, but also the growing backlash against their attempts to make abuse of power the new norm in the country. Indeed, since their stunning election victory in April, President Moon and his party have repeatedly undermined the rule of law, ignored the procedures put in place to ensure the separation of powers, and made controversial moves to further their populist agenda and help their allies escape accountability."

"Since the election, the DP government also made several moves to bring the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (SPO) fully under its control. [...] The government's attempts to shield its members and supporters from being held accountable for alleged abuses of power are not limited to bringing the SPO under control either. President Moon and the DP's silence on and apparent unwillingness to get to the bottom of the sexual harassment allegations directed at powerful heads of local government, including the highly influential , is yet another example of their desire to make abuse of power and impunity the new norm in South Korea. In light of all this, it is hardly surprising that Koreans are starting to turn their backs on Moon and his party who were elected on a promise to end corruption and abuse of power - ills that have beset Korean governments since the country's successful transition towards democracy in 1987. The alarming decline in the public's support for Moon and the DP is a clear warning that Moon risks becoming a lame duck in the fourth year of his five-year presidency and in the lead-up to the April 2021 by-elections and the 2022 presidential election."

"Corruption and misuse of power are widespread phenomena. They are one of the major, if not the major, threats to democratic government and the rule of law. But at the lower ends of the power hierarchies as well, in society as well as organizations, the abuse of power is a major obstacle in the way of many people's pursuit of happiness. Moreover, the diversion of official organizational power for the selfish ends of the powerholder is necessarily detrimental to the aims and goals of the organization or society."

"Even among the working class, concentration of power leads to its abuse, and there is no restraint on [civil] rights violations."

"Constant experience shows us that every man who has power is inclined to abuse it; he goes until he finds limits."

"It is certain, higher powers are not to be resisted; but some persons in power may be resisted. The powers are ordained of God; but kings commanding unjust things are not ordained of God to do such things; but to apply this to tyrants, I do not understand. Magistrates in some acts may be guilty of tyranny, and yet retain the power of magistracy; but tyrants cannot be capable of magistracy, nor any one of the scripture-characters of righteous rulers. They cannot retain that which they have forfeited, and which they have overturned; and usurpers cannot retain that which they never had. They may act and enact some things materially just, but they are not formally such as can make them magistrates, no more than some unjust actions can make a magistrate a tyrant. A murderer, saving the life of one and killing another, does not make him no murderer: once a murderer ay a murderer, once a robber ay a robber, till he restore what he hath robbed: so once a tyrant ay a tyrant, till he makes amends for his tyranny, and that will be hard to do."

"The concrete does specificate the abstract in actuating it, as a magistrate in his exercising government, makes his power to be magistry; a robber, in his robbing, makes his power to be robbery; an usurper in his usurping makes his power to be usurpation; so a tyrant in his tyrannizing, can have no power but tyranny. As the abstract of a magistrate is nothing but magistracy, so the abstract of a tyrant is nothing but tyranny. It is frivolous then to distinguish between a tyrannical power in the concrete, and tyranny in the abstract; the power and the abuse of the power: for he hath no power as a tyrant, but what is abused. [...] It is altogether impertinent to use such a distinction, with application to tyrants or usurpers, as many do in their pleading for the owning of our oppressors; for they have no power, but what is the abuse of power."

"Bodily autonomy is non-negotiable. It is about choices, rights and the power of women and girls to decide over their own body. UNFPA is calling for coordinated and collective action to achieve bodily autonomy, reproductive rights and gender equality well in time for 2030,”"

"Violence against women and girls has invaded all spaces, including virtual ones, and this must end,"

"For many women and girls, no place is completely safe. Violence invades their homes, schools, and workplaces, and now, it is becoming alarmingly widespread in their digital lives. Online violence can happen anywhere, to anyone, at any time. Yet, it disproportionately affects women and girls,”"

"For individuals vulnerable to intersecting forms of discrimination, the levels of digital violence they experience are even more extreme. Research shows LGBTQIA+ people, women and girls with disabilities, and people of African descent all experience online abuse specifically tied to their identities. Black women are an estimated 84 percent more likely than white women to be attacked in abusive tweets,”"

"Fortunately, survivors and allies are taking action. Already, more than 54,000 signatories have joined UNFPA’s #bodyright campaign and committed to championing the right to bodily autonomy and freedom from violence. Survivors and advocates – artists, activists, politicians, and tech experts among them – are sharing stories and demanding change"

"It's very important to understand the humanitarian and internal displacement conflicts is having on women, and that is why we need to create safe spaces"thumb|Dr. Natalia Kanem"

"For UNFPA right now, we are commiting 40 percent of our funding to finance female-led organizations. And this is the leadership we are committed to.""

"“Peace is the most pressing issue of our time and in women’s lives,”"

"Obviously, peace is fragile. It requires our continuous attention, dialogue, compromise and cooperation.”"

"“UNFPA has had a long and productive relationship with Rwanda. We discussed what is happening in the country in terms of the investments in young people and in the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls.”"

"“eased the reach to people in rural areas; a move to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to planning for families.”"

"“I’m delighted that Rwanda is hosting ICASA; which is a bigger opportunity for us to recommit to the prevention of HIV and to the compassionate caring to those who live with the virus,”"

"UNFPA lamented the loss of lives in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory and is deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of all civilians caught up in the crisis, especially women and girls."

"UNFPA reiterates call for reversal of evacuation order from northern Gaza Peoples Gazette (October 18, 2023 )"

"UNFPA supports pregnant women and newborns by providing essential medicines and deploying midwives. This can only continue if lifesaving aid can reach them."

"“We call for immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access so that food, medicines, water, and fuel can reach everyone in need.”"

"The world today is faced with a dangerous manifestation of... fascism. ...[T]here is marked agreement as to its objective characteristics."

"[F]ascism means the seizure and control of the economic, social, political, and cultural life of the state by a small group. Free speech, free press, free worship, and public meetings are ruthlessly suppressed. Blind obedience to the leader is demanded... and the slightest wavering means death or imprisonment... Restrictive policies may be carried on against... [one's] entire family. A fascist regime is... militaristic and nationalistic."

"[T]here are many strong symptoms of fascism in our own democratic society. ...[T]his movement in the United States masquerades under other names ...but ...its peculiar characteristics are alarmingly evident."

"At my request, the Legislative Reference Service of the has prepared a study of Fascism in Action as an aid to the American citizen in protecting himself and his children against this most dangerous movement of modern times."

"[F]ascism... means... [e]very person must think and act at the command of a higher authority. Every school, church, home, and business is carefully controlled by the dominant party. The concentration camp or death await the citizen who offers opposition..."

"To many, fascism, particularly as it operated in Germany, seemed a model of order and efficiency. ...But the cost to the individual was heavy. The price was abolition of representative government, of individual liberty, of the rights of free speech, free assembly, free religion, a free press, and the principle of equality before the law."

"Fascist Germany and Japan used the boasted efficiency of fascism to build mighty war machines to crush the "inefficient" democracies, but... Democracy and efficiency, even military efficiency, are not incompatible, and the democracies decisively defeated the fascist powers..."

"[F]ascism is today an everpresent danger to our democracy. We must consider... how to recognize its manifestations but also... combat it."

"[T]he best means of fighting fascism is to recognize it, no matter under what title it masquerades. Not all "hate" organizations are necessarily fascist, but they have... trends toward such..."

"[P]ersistent and fearless exposure will kill pro-fascist organizations and discredit the individuals who have formed them. However... exposure may attract new adherents."

"$100,000,000 per year is donated to propaganda organizations, some of which show very definite fascist tendencies."

"Many... feel that all agreements between American firms and foreign firms should be made public. This would... expose attempts of foreign fascists to work through American sympathizers."

"[O]ur educational system offers an excellent weapon, provided that we offer its advantages to all... regardless of... economic status or... location."

"Education... must utilize home influences... newspapers... radio, and other... public communication."

"must be given increased emphasis."

"A prime necessity in the defeat of fascism is... ."

"The Nation must continue to offer livelihood and hope to its citizens or they may become the prey of any demagog who offers them the promise of something better which is in reality a fascist regime."

"There must be a positive policy and a definite program for raising the national income and distributing it equitably so that people can buy the products of our economy. Some... consider this one of the most essential means for the destruction of incipient fascism."

"The working class has more to fear from fascism than any other group."

"[O]ne of the early acts of every fascist regime is the abolition of all labor organization outside government control."

"[M]ake certain that the existing government operates honestly and efficiently."

"Democracy and efficiency are compatible, but insinuations that we must choose between democratic participation ...and efficient government often emanate from fascist sources."

"Dr. Douglas M. Kelley has recently written 22 Cells in Nuremberg, a study in psychiatric terms of the Nazi defendants in the . ...[H]e describes his discovery, upon returning to America... that the same prejudices expressed in the same terms... were current in this country. He said:We can find the same ideas thinly veiled in our public press today. Even worse, we find some of our top political men, members of our highest governing bodies, making statements which would do credit to Rosenberg, Hitler, or Goebbels. ...I am convinced that there is little in America today which could prevent the establishment of a Nazi-like state."

"[T]here are dangerous tendencies toward fascism in the United States today, the present study can perform an important function in instructing the reader in the recognition of these tendencies. To be forewarned is to be forearmed."

"It lies within our power to defend our chosen democratic way of life against the attack of fascism, and the study Fascism in Action is offered as a weapon in that defense."

"This study of Fascism in Action... its scope and method were to conform in general to the earlier study, Communism in Action (H. Doc. No. 754, 79th Cong., 2d sess.), prepared at the instance of Representative Everett Dirksen, of Illinois."

"This study is appropriate because of the many similarities between fascism and communism, some of which Representative , of Illinois, has recently listed as follows: 1. [W]iping out of all independent trade-unionism... [T]hose... permitted, exist only under the tolerance of the totalitarian state... as its servile adjuncts. 2. [[wikt:elimination#Noun|[E]limination]] of political parties except the ruling... Party. 3. [[wikt:subordination#Noun|[S]ubordination]] of all economic and social life to the strict control of the ruling, single-party bureaucracy. 4. [[Suppression|[S]uppression]] of individual initiative... liquidation of... free enterprise, and a tendency toward government control of supers. 5. [[wikt:abolition#Noun|[A]bolition]] of the right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, and religious worship. 6. [[wikt:diminution#Noun|[R]eduction]] of wages and... living standards. 7. [[Slavery|[S]lave labor]]... and... concentration camps. 8. [[wikt:abolition#Noun|[A]bolition]] of the right to trial by jury, , the right to independent defense counsel, and the innocence of the defendant until proven guilty. 9. [[wikt:glorify#English:_baseless_magnification|[G]lorification]] of a single Leader or or ... all-powerful and subject neither to criticism nor removal through the ballot. 10. [U]tilization of... social demagogy—...[e.g.,] of race against race and class against class—the elimination of all opposition, and the concentration of power... dictatorship. 11. [[wikt:subordination#Noun|[S]ubordination]] of... life and... needs... to the... expanding military machine seeking world conquest. 12. ...Nation-wide espionage to which the entire population is subject. 13. [[wikt:sever#English:_legal_termination|[S]ever]]ance of social, cultural, and economic contact between the people of the totalitarian state and those of other countries, through... censorship, travel restrictions, etc. 14. [[wikt:disregard#Noun|[D]isregard]] for the rights of other nations and... treaties. 15. [M]aintenance and encouragement of s abroad. 16. [[wikt:diminution#Noun|[R]eduction]] of parliamentary bodies to... automatically approving all decisions of the one-party dictatorship and... omnipotent Leader."

"While communism is... atheistic and intolerant of religion as an "opiate for the people," fascism does not... set itself against religion... but... attacks specific religious groups and practices..."

"Communism frowns on private property, and nationalizes industries, banks, agricultural land, and all... property which may represent wealth. ...[F]ascism ...reprivatizes previously nationalized businesses, encourages s, and develops large private property holdings, especially in industry ...to simplify ...fascist control of the economy... [L]arge property holders... become members of the ruling elite."

"Communist agriculture tends to be state owned, operated, and directed, principally... collective farms, while fascist agriculture generally is built around an agriculture class, owning or leasing its land and producing according to a state program."

"[T]here is no fascist equivalent for the Communist program of (formerly the Third International), though the Axis alinement in the Second World War potentially had international aspects."

"Nowhere is the similarity of fascism and communism more clearly revealed than in their very close cooperation for aggression upon other states."

"Fascism... is... a philosophy and a way of life which requires... followers serve the state with an unwavering faith and... unquestioning obedience. It makes fanaticism a virtue and weaves ideological concepts about the doctrines of race supremacy, the leadership principle, rule by an elite class, government under a single political party, the acquisition of living space, a totalitarian state, and the use of force as an instrument of national policy."

"The roots of modern fascism, especially the German, and to a less degree the Italian, may be traced to nineteenth century thought. However, it is economically a contemporary manifestation of mercantilism; politically an for world conquest; and spiritually a quasi-religious cult with special symbols and ritual."

"In a narrow sense fascism is... the operation of the political, economic, and social institutions of the fascist state... [which] mobilizes all physical, social, and spiritual resources and activities... into a regimented whole. Primary emphasis is placed on power."

"In the following pages, when fascism means the movement in general or as a whole, it is spelled with a small "f"; when applied to Italy, it is spelled with a capital "F"."

"What... are the principles... that gave rise to fascism..?"

"All fascist thought starts from... [an] idea... that "a people" form a "natural community" which "becomes conscious of its solidarity and strives to form itself, to develop itself, to defend itself, to realize itself." The nation and state... become the vehicles by which a people reaches its goals."

"In theory... the and state are conceived as... inseparable... The state is a function of the people... It is the form in which the people attains to historical reality..."

"[T]he state is the most important power in all fascist thought and action. Everything must be subordinated to the state and... assist in promoting state ends... the... fascist program and world outlook (Weltanschauung)... [T]his reduces... to government by party leaders and small influential groups... as Junkers military officials, industrialists, and revolutionary juntas."

"[F]ascist philosophy regards the state as... in a conflict to achieve its ends. ...Hitler ...spoke to the workers of the Rheinmetall-Borsig plant ...December 10, 1940...We are involved in a conflict in which more than the victory of any one country or the other is at stake; it is rather a war of two opposing worlds."

"[F]ascism is a fighting philosophy... a power state seeking at all times to achieve the greatest possible physical might. ... Neither Mussolini nor Hitler was... inhibited in telling the world about the powerful military machines they were building. Even in peacetime they spoke of storm troopers, the battle of grain, and the labor front."

"[F]ascist leaders... use every instrument which will coerce people into obeying... propaganda and thought control... are... means of rationalizing acts of government... [and] devices for maximizing power."

"[T]he individual, his rights, privileges, freedom, and even existence itself are of secondary importance."

"Compare... the democratic concepts... All men are created equal... endowed by their Creator with... Inalienable rights... life, liberty... pursuit of happiness. To secure these rights governments are instituted... deriving... just powers from the consent of the governed. ...[A] Nation "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men ore created equal." The state is not the master but the servant of the individual."

"In a speech... February 12, 1947, Senator Robert A. Taft summarized the democratic viewpoint...Liberty... means first, liberty of the Individual to choose his own occupation in life and to live and conduct his business as he sees fit so long as he does not thus interfere with the liberty of others; and second, the liberty of communities to govern themselves, to decide what the scope of their government activities shall be and how their children shall live and be educated. Equality means equal opportunity to get started in life, and equal justice under law before impartial s."

"Human life takes on great value only when it serves a state purpose. ...[T]he fascist citizen ...has a role to fill ...prescribed ...by the state. He is regimented... He must obey the injunctions of the state and its leaders... The state decides his living standards... He must submit to regulations, restrictions, and substitute diets... [of] the fascist controlled economy. Life consists of a multitude of duties and s... Failure to do one's part is... punishable by penalties designed to achieve obedience and conformity. ...[W]oe to him who criticizes or opposes the government or its representatives."

"[[Religion|[R]eligion]] does not escape regimentation. Because it causes the citizen to feel reverence for a Higher Power or Supreme Being above the state and... fuehrers; because it teaches faith, hope, charity, peace, humility before God but... defiance of earthly authorities when in conflict with Divine precepts; and because it preaches dignity of the individual... [it] becomes the object of attack."

"[I]n Nazi Germany... General Erich von Ludendorff9 exclaimed "I reject Christianity because it is international, and because, in cowardly fashion, it preaches Peace on Earth." Oswald Spengler... speaks of "Catholic Bolshevism more dangerous than the anti-Christian" and argues that "all communist systems in the West are in fact derived from Christian theological thought."10 Alfred Rosenberg felt that "both the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Confessional Church, as they exist at present, must vanish from the life of our people."11"

"[T]here are degrees of religious regimentation and sometimes a workable arrangement may be reached between... Church and state as... in Italy, Japan, and Spain. But... primary consideration is the state and... [permitted] religious freedom... is determined by the state and its leaders."

"Professor ... [i]n 1868... wrote, "A state is unable to commit any crime." This... paraphrased..l.l doctrines of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814)... who said:in relations with other States neither law nor right exists, except the right of the strongest. These relations place in the hands of the prince responsible to Fate the divine right of the Majesty of Destiny and of the Government of the world."

"During the sixteenth century, Niccolo Machiavelli... in... The Prince (1513): "The Prince must know how to do wrong." This idea the fascist state joins with the thought that political frontiers are... power-political situations... a temporary front line held... during the lull between wars.14 Nations... must grow or wither, expand or decline, but... cannot stand still.15 The struggle for... space and power is unavoidable and everlasting. ...[T]he state and ...leader must do everything, regardless of... [ethics], which... promote... interests of his State. The leader "must not fear to kill nor to bear the brand of infamy."16 Treaties which stand in the way... must be regarded as "scraps of paper"... falsehood and deceit are... instruments of international politics."

"How thoroughly these principles were applied by Hitler... he... with only apparent inconsistency, could say in 1935... "National Socialism has no aggressive intentions against any European nation";17 in 1936, "we have no territorial demands to make in Europe"18 (shortly thereafter to foment the international crisis over the Sudeten lands of ); in 1938, "we do not want any Czechs"19 (annexation shortly thereafter); in January 1939, "in these weeks we are celebrating the fifth anniversary of the conclusion of the nonaggression pact with Poland. Between them and us peace and understanding shall reign"20 (unannounced invasion came 8 months later); in September 1938, "we have called upon the constructive elements in all countries to fight in common against "21 (to be followed in 1939, by a nonaggression pact hailed as a "triumph for common sense").22"

"The economic ideal of fascism... is economic autarchy. No imports, keep out the foreigner, substitutes (Ersatz), expansion by conquest, colonization, amalgamation, barter arrangements, agreements... are... favored... The era of free world trade and individualism is regarded as past. The future, they say, belongs to the giant totalitarian fortress economy."

"Such ideas go back hundreds of years to... seventeenth and eighteenth century English mercantilists... Philipp Hoernigh... (Austria a Ruler of the World If It Wills It)... Kameralists in Prussia... to Colbert and other mercantilists in France, Italy, and Spain."

"Friedrich List... is frequently held... most responsible for popularizing modern fascist or totalitarian economics. Returning from the United States where he had come under the influence of the... nationalism of Henry Clay and the protectionism of Alexander Hamilton, List in 1842, published The National System of Political Economy in which he insisted that Germany needed complete and economic isolationism coupled with expansion over... the North and Baltic Seas to the Black Sea and the Adriatic."

"When List's ideas... joined... geopolitical teachings of Haushofer... [their] program... called for a greater German Reich... [concentrating] all strategic technological skills and productivity. All other European states were to be colonies providing s, and when... [needed,] low-paid labor.26 ...Ernst Hasse spoke ...1905 of filling Germany's ...heavy and dirty work by "our condemning alien European stocks, the Poles, Czechs, Jews, Italians ...to these helot's occupations."27"

"[A]reas beyond fascist political dominance... for international economic relationships is... . It is waged in times of peace, as well as during... hostilities, only in less violent form."

"The economy... is one of mercantilism, economic autarchy, corporate aggrandizement coupled with colonialism and imperialism, a self-sufficient area thoroughly organized and controlled, continuously waging ."

"The economic doctrines of fascism... run... counter to democratic principles. Basic freedoms... as freedom of occupation, free competitive markets, free international flow of goods, services and capital, and free private enterprise... are... greatly restricted or eliminated."

"[F]ascism... is deeply rooted in ancient ideas and institutions. Politically, it has drawn generously upon the theories of absolutism, the supreme right of kings, dictatorship and tyranny, ideas older than the ancient Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, and Caesar."

"[F]ascism reverts to a mercantilism, the supposed destruction of which, by Adam Smith in... Wealth of Nations... is often considered... the beginning of scientific economics."

"[F]ascism is an effort to turn back the spread of Christian concepts of the brotherhood of man — against all liberal, humanitarian ideas which have pioneered the emancipation of the underprivileged, racially, culturally, and socially."

"In subsequent chapters we shall see how it actually worked out..."

"Fascism in Action: Documented Study and Analysis of Fascism in Europe. House Document 401, 80th Congress, ist Session, 1947. 206 p. 45¢ 80-1:H, Doc. 401. The tenets of fascist totalitarianism as they affect politics, economics, and the life of the individual. Illustrated by frequent references to original sources."