Notable and Quotable

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence--it is force.” George Washington

“We do not need to get good laws to restrain bad people. We need to get good people to restrain bad laws.” G.K. Chesterton

“The essence of government is force: whatever its end, its means is compulsion. Government forces people to do what they would not otherwise choose to do, or it forces them to refrain from doing what they would otherwise do. So, when we say ‘government should do x,’ we are really saying, ‘people should be forced to do x.’ It should be obvious that force should be used only for the most serious reasons, such as preventing and punishing violence. The frivolous, improper, or excessive use of force is wrong. We used to call it tyranny. Unfortunately, too many people think that calling for the government to do x is merely a way of saying that x is desirable. And so we are increasingly forced to do things that are not genuine social duties but merely good ideas. The result is that the role of state coercion in our lives grows greater and greater.” Joseph Sobran

“The worst thing in the world, next to anarchy, is government.” Henry Ward Beecher

“Two characteristics of government are that it cannot do anything quickly, and that it never knows when to quit.” George Stigler

“When you break the big laws, you do not get liberty; you do not even get anarchy. You get the small laws.” G.K. Chesterton

“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” Calvin Coolidge

“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, the power to destroy.” Daniel Webster

“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” Albert Einstein

“No party is as bad as its leaders.” Will Rogers

“Government does not produce wealth: it consumes it, squanders it, and redistributes it. Ultimately, that is still theft even if it’s done in broad daylight, in elegant surroundings, by majority vote.” Howard Phillips

“If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog.” Harry Truman

“You can’t even trust the dogs in this town.” Clarence Thomas

“I belong to no organized political party--I’m a Democrat.” Will Rogers

“Goodness without wisdom always accomplishes evil.” Robert Heinlein

“The most terrifying words in the English language are, I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Ronald Reagan

“Of all the tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely expressed for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent busybodies.” C.S. Lewis

“We must beware of reducing society to the state or the state to society. For the state to take over the tasks of society and of the family is outside its jurisdiction and competency.” Abraham Kuyper

“There is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” Will Rogers