Citizen Obedience Quotes

Everything within the State. Nothing outside the State. Nothing against the State.

Make but few laws but see them well observed when once made.

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.

If the official is himself upright, the people will play their roles without orders. If he is not upright, even under orders the people will be disobedient.

If [drugs] didn't exist, our government would have to invent them, the better to enact laws aimed at keeping the citizens "sinless and obedient."

People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.

A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.

Doubts raced through my mind as I considered the feasibility of enforcing a law which the majority of honest citizens didn't seem to want.

Politicians have limited power. They can't impose morality on themselves. How can they impose it on the country?

All constitutional laws are binding on all the people, in the new States and in the old ones, whether they consent to be bound by them or not.

How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.

When the legislator is finally elected --- ah! then indeed does the tone of his speech undergo a radical change. The people are returned to passiveness, inertness, and unconsciousness; the legislator enters into omnipotence. Now it is for him to initiate, to direct, to propel, and to organize. Mankind has only to submit …

I love the system. Let me tell you why. People love it... The people, by and large, have great respect for our law and our system... Why do you think they go to that courthouse instead of killing each other in the streets, taking the law into their own hands?