Bassem Youssef Quotes

A theory of the middle class: that it is not to be determined by its financial situation but rather by its relation to government. That is, one could shade down from an actual ruling or governing class to a class hopelessly out of relation to government, thinking of government as beyond its control, of itself as wholly controlled by government. Somewhere in between and In gradations is the group that has the sense that gov't exists for it, and shapes its consciousness accordingly.

Governments show thus how successfully men can be imposed on, even impose on themselves, for their own advantage.

The State is the coldest of all cold monsters.

Let's say there are 500 sons and daughters like you in each state. Then we could control the government.

Accepting money from the federal government to conduct research places academic inquiry in the service of national interests.

The American citizen must be made aware that today a relatively small group of people is proclaiming its purposes to be the will of the People. That elitist approach to government must be repudiated.

Big government inevitably drives an upward distribution of wealth to those whose wealth, confidence and sophistication enable them to manipulate government.

We [Arabs] export not only oil but techniques and tools of torture. Our states, run by ministries of the interior and the security services, are regimes bereft of legitimacy and based on violations of dignity and human rights.

Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion can change the government practically just so much.

My mind is appalled at the thought of a political party having control of all the details that go to make up the sum total of our lives. Think of it for an instant, that the party in power shall have all authority to dictate the kind of books that shall be used in our schools and universities, government officials editing, printing, and circulating our literature, histories, magazines and press, to say nothing of the thousand and one activities of life that a people engage in, in a civilized society.

With the present state of the Egyptian judiciary, they [the government] can convict anybody of anything.

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

Government stimulates the democrat party.

My thesis is that government is not, in fact, broken. It's just listening to the wrong people, and it's listening to all of this quiet influence. So it's a very robust operation that operates kind of under the surface.

Actually we're not hearing a lot about gas prices right now from constituents. And I think that reflects a growing understanding on the part of the public, that there really is very little that the government and politicians can do.

No wonder politicians love government schools. Where do you think the dumb masses come from that can be so easily led and manipulated?

They think that the cure to big government is to have bigger government... the only effective cure is to reduce the scope of government - get government out of the business.

A little government involvement is just as dangerous as a lot - because the first leads inevitably to the second.

Men in high levels of government seldom surf.

The entire Nazi war machine was only possible because of past, present and future violations of the non aggression principle (achievable only through government).

Any dictatorship would be better than modern democracy. There cannot be so incompetent a dictator, that he would show more stupidity than a majority of the people. Best dictatorship would be one where lots of heads would roll and government would prevent any economical growth.

When the Chinese government tells its citizens that they can worship in a certain building on a certain day, but once they leave that building they must bow to the secular orthodoxy of the state, you have a cynical lie at work. They’ve substituted a toothless ‘freedom of worship’ for ‘freedom of religion’.

There is nothing more dangerous than a government of the many controlled by the few.

Who do you think is more difficult to face: oppressive governments, or oppressive societies?

I don't think the Arab Spring had much to do with energy. I think it was just the opposite, in fact. I think the Arab Spring happened because particularly young people knew they were living in a context where they could not realize their full potential, that they are being kept down by their own governments.