Government Purpose Quotes

The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man's rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence. A proper government is only a policeman, acting as an agent of man's self-defense, and, as such, may only resort to force only against those who start the use of force.

Government is instituted for the common good; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people; and not for profit, honor, or private interest of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, the people alone have an incontestable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to institute government; and to reform, alter, or totally change the same, when their protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness require it.

I am persuaded to believe that God had left nations to the liberty of setting up such governments as best pleased themselves, and that magistrates were set up for the good of nations, not nations for the honor and glory of magistrates.

The ultimate aim of government is not to rule, or restrain, by fear, nor to exact obedience, but contrariwise, to free every man from fear, that he may live in all possible security; in other words, to strengthen his natural right to exist and work without injury to himself or others.

The will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate government upon earth.

The great and chief end, therefore, of men uniting into commonwealths, and putting themselves under government, is the preservation of their property

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.

Government “for the people” should be called a government of God rather than of men.

As the happiness of the people is the sole end of government, so the consent of the people is the only foundation of it ...

The happiness of society is the end of government.

I believe that government is for the use of the people, and not the people for the use of the government.

Government has no other end but the preservation of property.

It is for the good of nations, and not for the emolument or aggrandizement of particular individuals, that government ought to be established, and that mankind are at the expense of supporting it. The defects of every government and constitution both as to principle and form, must, on a parity of reasoning, be as open to discussion as the defects of a law, and it is a duty which every man owes to society to point them out.

Labor: a man coins himself into his labor,—turns his day, his strength, his thought, his affection into some product which remains as the visible sign of his power; and to protect that, to secure that to him, to secure his past self to his future self, is the object of all government. There is no interest in any country so imperative as that of labor; it covers all, and constitutions and governments exist for that,—to protect and insure it to the laborer.

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government's purposes are beneficent.

The purpose of government is to obtain the greatest quantity of human happiness.

The first role of government is to help people who are in crisis or need. That's why we have government.

I think it's always easy to be sympathetic to parts of the government in detail; in their concrete manifestations. Because obviously, we don't have government for no reason.

Freedom Party International believes that the purpose of government is to protect every individual's fundamental freedoms, not to restrict them.

The freedom and happiness of man... are the sole objects of all legitimate government

The end of government is the good of mankind.

All governments need enemies. How else to justify their existence?

But which is the State's essential function, aggression or defence, few seem to know or care.

What is the purpose of the government? When you examine most political debates, you usually find that question at the bedrock. What makes a government good? What makes one effective? What is government supposed to do, and what shouldn’t it do? The reason we disagree so much about politics is often because we hold different theories about what the purpose of government is.

To make government effectual to all the good purposes of it, there must be a religion; this religion must be national; and this national religion must be maintained in reputation and reverence; all other religions or sects must be kept too low to become the rivals of it.