Plato Quotes

Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

All governments, without exception, are stable only insofar as they can effectively reward and punish.

To make a State appear necessary, any would-be State must first destroy the natural order and create a Hobbesian "anarchy" characterized by looting and vandalizing.

The state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class for suppressing the resistance of its class enemies.

Extensive and organized power over large populations does not suffice to make a nation

We have Triple A Credit but we do not have a Triple A Government

Good government

The most basic building block of any successful government is, first and foremost, a moral authority over the people it leads.

A government, to afford the needful protection and exercise proper care for the welfare of a people, must have homogeneity in its constituents. It is this necessity which has divided the human race into separate nations, and finally has defeated the grandest efforts which conquerors have made to give unlimited extent to their domain.

The State's criminality is nothing new and nothing to be wondered at. It began when the first predatory group of men clustered together and formed the State, and it will continue as long as the State exists in the world, because the State is fundamentally an anti-social institution, fundamentally criminal.

May it be my privilege to have the happiness of establishing the commonwealth on a firm and secure basis and thus enjoy the reward which I desire, but only if I may be called the author of the best possible government; and bear with me the hope when I die that the foundations which I have laid for its future government, will stand firm and stable.

Every cook must learn to rule the State.

The government that governs best, governs best!

A government that understands the limits of power as well as its potential.

No government can be maintained without the principle of fear as well as duty. Good men will obey the last, but bad ones the former only. If our government ever fails, it will be from this weakness.

I too am a government.

There is no right government except good government.

I have always felt that the real purpose of government is to enhance the lives of people and that a leader can best do that by restraining government in most cases instead of enlarging it at every opportunity.

America is looking for a consistent leader.

The excellence of every government is its adaptation to the state of those to be governed by it.

Even the most despotic government cannot stand except for the consent of the governed.... Immediately the subject ceases to fear the despotic force, his power is gone.

There is as far as I know, no example in history, of any state voluntarily ceding power from the centre to its constituent parts.

[V]igor of government is essential to the security of liberty.