The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

Government is a kind of legalized pillage.

Government is a kind of legalized pillage.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical read more

A government is the most dangerous threat to man's rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.

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

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

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to read more

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

So that every wand or staff of empire is forsooth curved at top.
[Lat., Adeo ut omnes imperii virga read more

So that every wand or staff of empire is forsooth curved at top.
[Lat., Adeo ut omnes imperii virga sive bacillum vere superius
inflexum sit.]

Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it.

Talk is cheap - except when Congress does it.

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home.

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people read more

The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.