Steve Ballmer Quotes

Being a cabinet minister is not like running a company. A country is not a company.

Government is not an exact science.

Our biggest problem is that we have built a permanent structure of government - federal, state and local - the permanent employees. [W]e’ve come to a place where they actually determine policy in this country more than does the congress of the United States.

I don't have any insight or understanding on anything about the government. All I think is that it's stupid - which is the one perspective that's almost completely lacking in Washington.

Government is like an onion. To understand it, you have to peel through many different layers. Most outsiders never get beyond the first or second layer.

Good ideas are the backbone of good government.

I actually think that working in the federal government, or state or local, is one of the most significant things that a technical person can do.

I believe all universities should at least offer courses in politics and policy implementation.

I think that Governor Romney needs to talk about the fact that what he tried to do in the state of Massachusetts was him seeing what could be best for his state, but maybe it didn't work out as well.

Do we need a central government at all?

Government at every level failed the Katrina victims.

The British Government

What is politics but business?

Only one in 10 Americans trusts the federal government to do the right thing most or all of the time. Approval of state and local government is even less in many parts of the country.

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

I am sure of my ability to form a good government.

New York voters agree on this: There is too much corruption in government - federal, state, and local.

You have to understand government and you have to understand how hard it is.

People may not know what tier of government has competence over which policy area but they do draw a distinction between the local and the national.

With all the imperfections of our present government, it is without comparison the best existing, or that ever did exist.

"Government," says Swift, "is a plain thing, and fitted to the capacity of many heads."

The Administration of the United States is such dread I almost feel paralyzed.

The high-minded definition of politics is: 'the art or science of government; the art or science concerned with guiding or influencing governmental policy.' It is only when you keep reading in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary that you get closer to the truth: 'political activities characterized by artful and often dishonest practices'.

Politics is an obsolete way of doing things. Although it was good a hundred years ago, it has no place in today's high tech society.

You can have very big local government. By big, I mean very engaged government. Do you measure it in terms of the number of laws? Number of employees? You could make arguments for either one. I tend to think the axis of the size of government is the wrong concern. But I do think that situating power more locally is a legitimate approach.