James Bovard Quotes

We need a Federal government that does what the government needs to do and stops doing what the government ought not to be doing.

The government's only functions are to protect the rights of the individual; therefore, you need a police force and an army.

The Blair government has lowered the standing of politics and politicians in our country.

I believe transparency in government is key to restoring our nation's faith in its elected leaders.

The government is already into our lives a whole lot more than they should be. If I were president, I'd roll everything back. Everything!

Someone who is a good person should have no fear of the government whatsoever.

The government is supposed to conform to our will. By taking the most important thing you have, your health and your health care, and turning that over to the government, you fundamentally shift the power, a huge chunk of it, from the people to the government. This is not the direction that we want the government to go in this nation.

I was reluctant to be critical of the United States because I thought the United States could do no wrong; that the government could not lie to its people.

Before my tenure, people didn't seem to think that citizens had a right to limit the size of their government.

In all questions between a government and an individual the presumption in every Englishman's mind is that the government is in the wrong.

We can’t trust government to limit its powers to the Constitution.

We don’t trust government, but we need government….Government didn’t land here from Mars. We elected them.

Historically our government—the FBI for example—has not always earned that trust.

I'm just not sure I trust the federal government not to trample on civil liberties.

The lesson that Americans today have forgotten or never learned - the lesson which our ancestors tried so hard to teach - is that the greatest threat to our lives, liberty, property, and security is not some foreign government, as our rulers so often tell us. The greatest threat to our freedom and well-being lies with our own government!.

Why do the police need to know where I am? In the hands of a benevolent government, they could be looking after your interests, but what if the next government isn't so benevolent?

I do not subscribe to the doctrine that the people are the slaves and property of their government. I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.

We should distinguish carefully skepticism about Big Government from contempt for all government.

Government should enforce rule of law. It should enforce contracts, it should protect people bodily from being attacked by criminals. And when the government does those things, it is facilitating liberty. When it goes beyond those things, it becomes destructive to both human happiness and human liberty.

Government is too big and too important to be left to the politicians.

Thank God for our form of government. The media won't let there be any cover-up.

Whether we're at war or have been attacked, the foundation of society is that you hold to the laws in place. I used to be somebody that trusted the government. Now I really don't trust anything.

It is one of the great tragedies of the US, that most learn most of what they know about the government from the government.

We can only restore faith in government if the state itself becomes an efficient, effective and transparent ally of the people. Bureaucratic inefficiencies, abuses of power and the misappropriation of public funds must end.

We must guard against the overreaching hand of big government trying to take away our freedom. And we must always protect the environment in a manner consistent with our values.