Ask not what the government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.

Ask not what the government can do for you. Ask why it doesn't.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own read more

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule to never criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

A government is not an old pair of socks that you throw away.

A government is not an old pair of socks that you throw away.

. . . The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to
determine whether a republican government read more

. . . The manners of women are the surest criterion by which to
determine whether a republican government is practicable in a
nation or not.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally read more

In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

Which government is best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Which government is best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever
debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor read more

Yesterday the greatest question was decided which was ever
debated in America; and a greater perhaps never was, nor will be,
decided among men. A resolution was passed without one
dissenting colony, that those United Colonies are, and of right
ought to be, free and independent States.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence -- it is force.

Government is not reason, it is not eloquence -- it is force.