Abraham Lincoln Quotes

That’s the function of government—to do for people what they cannot do for themselves.

The legitimate object of government is "to do for the people what needs to be done, but which they cannot, by individual effort, do at all, or do so well, for themselves.

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

The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but can not do at all, or can not so well do, for themselves – in their separate, and individual capacities.

For all the huffing and blowing we get about rugged individualism, the American spirit and the American experiment always have had at their heart the notion that the government is all of us and that, therefore, the government may keep things in trust for all of us.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

Government is a progressive instrument for the common good.

The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities....In all that the people can individually do for themselves, government ought not interfere.

Private interests must be made subservient to the general interests of the community

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

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

What it missing, I think, is this notion of the common good.

All government is intended for the benefit of the people.

The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to the general mass of those associated under it.

While I can see how the government has, at times, wasted taxpayers' money, and I can admit that too often its programs are ineffective, I also can see the good that government does.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

The reason the government sells the census as your ticket to getting goodies - rather than as your civic duty - is that distributing goodies is now all the government does.

I believe in public services.

I've always believed as a value that the government has a vital - not overwhelming, but vital - role to play in furthering human welfare and good. I think we have an important supportive role to play, hopefully intelligent and sensible.

My concept of government's role in people's lives is that it is limited but legitimate, and essential when people have nowhere else to turn.

We believe that government works for the benefit of private life, and not the other way around.

It is perfectly true that that government is best which governs least. It is equally true that that government is best which provides most.

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

Look around, and you see everywhere the exertions and acts of individuals restricted, regulated, or promoted, on the principle of the common welfare.

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