Lao Tzu Quotes

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish - too much handling will spoil it.

Life is filigree work. What is written clearly is not worth much, it's the transparency that counts.

Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

Democracy is far more complex than simply choosing the people who govern you.

I did not love politics. As a matter of fact, I hated politics. I loved governing which is … a different thing.

I've heard, 'Temer is very fragile, poor little thing; he doesn't know how to govern.' Gibberish!

It is not an easy job to govern China, I am aware of that.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

It must be that to govern a nation you need a specific talent and that this may very well exist without general ability.

lf there is anything that puzzles me in this game lt is that the longer that you are in the job of Prime Minister, the harder you have to work to do your job. With anything else, such as stenography, administering a store, or whatever done it for nine or ten years you get to know the ropes pretty well and it becomes easy and you can spend a lot of time playing golf or something. l feel that the more you know, the more you have to know and the more problems come.

Politics is a fascinating game, because politics is government. It is the art of government.

The future lies with those wise political leaders who realize that the great public is interested more in government than in politics.

I always say that campaigning and governing are two different things.

To form a new Government, requires infinite care, and unbounded attention; for if the foundation is badly laid the superstructure must be bad.

It is easier to run a revolution than a government.

Politics is different than business.

Government is an art, not a science, and an adventure, not a planned itinerary.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

Governments must conform to the nature of the men governed.

Politics are the divine science, after all.

You can't manage [country] the way you would manage a family business.

Plato long ago pointed out the importance of being governed by men with sufficient sense of responsibility and comprehension of public duties to be very reluctant to undertake the work of governing.

I already, and for weeks afterward, felt my nature the coarser for this part of my woodland experience, and was reminded that ourlife should be lived as tenderly and daintily as one would pluck a flower.

If I had to choose one which best characterized the condition of being a political leader in Athens, the word would be "tension".