public perception of government Quotes

The basis of effective government is public confidence, and that confidence is endangered when ethical standards falter or appear to falter.

Why does corruption in government always surprise us? Why do we expect anything else from it? Government is organized force. It takes our wealth and makes war. And we think honest men would do that work?

I don't know what people have against government; they haven't done anything.

[For business after WWII ] democracy means getting people to regard government as an alien force that's robbing them and oppressing them, not as their government. In a democracy it would be your government.

A government can be no better than the public opinion which sustains it.

What I can't understand is, how can anybody figure now that the government can support us, when we support the government.

I think the people who go to work every day don't feel like Washington cares a whit about them,and, actually, they're executing policies that are bad for them.

It is curious that people tend to regard government as a quasi-divine, selfless, Santa Claus organization. Government was constructed neither for ability nor for the exercise of loving care; government was built for the use of force and for necessarily demagogic appeals for votes. If individuals do not know their own interests in many cases, they are free to turn to private experts for guidance. It is absurd to say that they will be served better by a coercive, demagogic apparatus.

We shouldn't assume that government is always trying to do the wrong thing.

It is amazing how many people seem to think that the government exists to turn their prejudices into law.