Dick Gephardt Quotes

The role of government is to steer us in the right direction, not do all the work for us.

There are a lot of good causes out there, but they can't possibly all be served by government.

We regard the state as an agency whose positive assistance is one of the indispensable conditions of human progress.

The final end of government is not to exert restraint but to do good.

We need government to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.

Paternalism is the method of government activism most amenable to an impoverished public sector.

‎"I feel certain that Conservatism is through unless Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with [the unemployed, the sick without medical care, human welfare, etc.] and believing that the federal government is the proper agent for their solution.

Government has the power to help improve well-being

Government should steer, not row.

The government doesn't have to solve everyone's problem here.

Just as the left has to be more willing to question 'Government knows best,' the right has to rethink its laissez-faire attitude toward government.

Government health care changes the relationship between the citizen and the state, and, in fact, I think it's an assault on citizenship.

Some things are too important to be left to the private sector.

We need a liberal agenda in which government resists the temptation to interfere in the lives of individuals but is equally determined to play an active role where creative action can advance the liberties of all.

Politicians are good at saying how Government must do more, but we must also think carefully about where Government should do less.

Businesses should be focused on business, and social responsibility should be government responsibility.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

Markets are very important but for the government the citizens are more so.

This administration in Washington that's in power now clearly believes that government is not only the answer to every need, but it's the most qualified to make the most central decisions for every American in every area.

Government has a role as well in what is referred to as redistributive justice.

I think government has a major role to play in helping us with the pursuit of happiness.

Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.

…people consider the things which government does for them to be social progress, but they consider the things the government does for others as socialism.

A country is not a business and a government should stand for much more than economic efficiency.

Government is a progressive instrument for the common good.