Plato Quotes

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

Government is at its worst when you have apathy from its citizens.

Freedom isn't free. It shouldn't be a bragging point that 'Oh, I don't get involved in politics,' as if that makes someone cleaner. No, that makes you derelict of duty in a republic. Liars and panderers in government would have a much harder time of it if so many people didn't insist on their right to remain ignorant and blindly agreeable.

Every country has the government it deserves.

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

In a democracy, people usually get the kind of government they deserve, and they deserve what they get.

But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external controls nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Plato says that the punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is, to live under the government of worse men; and the like regret is suggested to all the auditors, as the penalty of abstaining to speak,--that they shall hear worse orators than themselves.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

To sit back and say, 'Oh, we're going to let the government do whatever they want, right or wrong,' is giving up.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you.

You're a sovereign as a citizen. If you're not involved in your government, you're not doing your job. In the long run that's very bad for the Republic.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

It is hard to feel individually responsible with respect to the invisible processes of a huge and distant government.

Your ability as republican volunteers, to rise to this challenge will mean that the two governments and others cannot easily hide from their obligations and their responsibility to resolve these problems.

When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.

It is a clear truth that those who every day barter away other men's liberty will soon care little for their own.

The worst evils which mankind has ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments.

I had a lot of friends in high school who said, 'Louie, I don't care what the government does as long as they leave me alone.' Well, guess what, when you don't care what the government does, it does not leave you alone.

From my father's point of view, without a thought for self, a true patriot stands up against the stones of condemnation and speaks for those who are given no real voice in the halls of justice or the halls of government.

I feel a real responsibility to my community and so right now there has been this bizarre myth in our community how our vote doesn't count. I'm trying to get out there and re-educate on how the government works and break that myth and talk about the importance of being involved.

The value of government to the people it serves is in direct relationship to the interest citizens themselves display in the affairs of state.

Many laws as certainly make bad men, as bad men make many laws.

No man should ever lose sleep over public affairs.