Governance Principles Quotes

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

The art of governing is a great metier, requiring the whole man, and it is therefore not well for a ruler to have too strong tendencies for other affairs.

In all governments, there must of necessity be both the law and the sword; laws without arms would give us not liberty, but licentiousness; and arms without laws, would produce not subjection, but slavery. The law, therefore, should be unto the sword what the handle is to the hatchet; it should direct the stroke and temper the force.

Good economics is good politics.

The rule of liberty that all government derives its authority from the consent of the governed, applies only to those who are capable of self government. We govern the Indians without their consent, we govern our territories without their consent, we govern our children without their consent.

The Founders knew that a democracy would lead to some kind of tyranny. The term democracy appears in none of our Founding documents. Their vision for us was a Republic and limited government.

No one can deny that some Islamist groups have credential and popularity. But that does not mean they are a majority. If we are serious about democracy we cannot blame the people for choosing what they want. We must promote the kinds of procedures and processes that are helping the people move ahead.

The best commentary on the principles of government which has ever been written.

High politic is only common sense applied to great things.

The Constitution was not written to restrain the citizen's behavior, it was writtne to restrain the government's behavior.

Laws are to govern all alike—those opposed as well as those who favor them.

What is Maximum Governance, Minimum Government? It means government has no business to be in business.

A republic - if you can keep it - is about limitation, and for good reason, because we are mortal and our actions are imperfect.

The Constitution is ...the greatest single effort of national deliberation that the world has ever seen

Like all fads, corporate governance has its zealots.

There is no such thing as political science, but there are tenancies so strong that they might as well be called laws of nature.

Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.

Governing is different than campaigning, and that comes with a whole different level of responsibility.

American government is not dominated by engineers, it is dominated by lawyers. Engineers are interested in substance and building things; lawyers are interested in process and rights and getting the ideology correctly blended. And so there is sort of no really concrete plan for the future.

The biggest problem for the Republican Party has never been its primary calendar, its campaign tactics, or a lack of trainings. The party's biggest problem is what it believes, what it says, and how it governs.

Any civilized administration, however organized, prefers its own good to that of the people.

History has tried hard to teach us that we can't have good government under politicians. Now, to go and stick one at the very head of the government couldn't be wise.

There can be no such thing as "limited government," because there is no way to control an entity that in principle enjoys a monopoly of power.

Politics is a war of causes; a joust of principles. Government is too serious a matter to admit of meaningless courtesies.

The biggest obstacle in interacting with China is the difference in perspectives about basic values. These include issues such as human rights, the concept of law and constitution.