Billy Joel Quotes

Already I realize the tremendous effort it requires not to be taken over by the Civil Service. My Minister’s room is like a padded cell, and in certain ways I am like a person who is suddenly certified a lunatic and put safely into this great vast room, cut off from real life ... Of course, they don’t behave quite like nurses because the Civil Service is profoundly deferential – “Yes, Minister! No, Minister! If you wish it, Minister! Yes minister.”

The British civil service ... is a beautifully designed and effective braking mechanism.

We carry out our work under the leadership of the government.

Regulations grow at the same rate as weeds.

We are the beast of state government.

A bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members, rather than leave free the energies of mankind.

Every business action of the individual is supervised and hedged about with red tape and paternal restrictions.

The Civil Service rewards those who do no more than sit at their desks and say no.

The State is a collection of officials, different for difference purposes, drawing comfortable incomes so long as the status quo is preserved. The only alteration they are likely to desire in the status quo is an increase of bureaucracy and the power of bureaucrats.

The bureaucracy takes itself to be the ultimate purpose of the state

Some civil servants are neither servants nor civil.

We think the government is running the country, but it is just a policymaker. Unknowingly, people are inviting the government to run their lives. The only business of the government is to come up with the right policies.

The civil servants will always be there to look after this country. So don't worry... Any political party taking power will have to work with the civil servants who are very well acquainted with running this country.

The government is a machinery manned by human beings.

I've seen the government up close and personal, and for the most part, it's inefficient and hidebound, and it stifles creativity in any industry it clutches within its well-meaning but slimy tentacles.

News flash: The federal government is not the most efficient institution in the world. Taxpayers know that.

Let's make it simple: Government control means uniformity, regulation, fees, inspection, and yes, compliance.

Government commissions are where accountability goes to die.

One thing about bureaucrats is that they never swallow their young. Leave them alone and you'll find them increasing every year.

It must be a source of great chagrin to those in charge to think of so many people being able to stick a stamp on a letter and drop it in a mail box without any trouble or suffering at all. They are probably working on a system this very minute, trying to devise some way in which the public can be made to fill out a blank, stand in line, consult some underling who will refer him to a superior, and then be made to black up with burned cork before they can mail a letter.

The same government that requires a taxpaying citizen to document every statement on his tax return decrees that questioning a welfare applicant demeans and humiliates him.

If you're tempted to believe with Governor Cuomo that government is just like Mom and Pop rather than Big Brother, just ask yourself one question: When was the last time all the IRS wanted from you was a hug and a kiss.

After a time, civil servants tend to become no longer servants and no longer civil.

The speed with which bureaucracy has invaded almost every branch of human activity is something astounding once one thinks about it.

They're on you day and night. Their oversight is just too extreme [. . .] That's why our 10-year loan, we paid it back in three years. We couldn't stand the government. The bureaucracy kills you.