States are great engines moving slowly.

States are great engines moving slowly.

Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.

Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair.

A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;
An hour may lay it in the dust.

A thousand years scarce serve to form a state;
An hour may lay it in the dust.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Only a government that is rich and safe can afford to be a democracy, for democracy is the most expensive read more

Only a government that is rich and safe can afford to be a democracy, for democracy is the most expensive and nefarious kind of government ever heard of on earth.

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work read more

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.

Franklin Roosevelt stands like a sharply formed rock in a shapeless sea.
spoken on Book TV by a Jackson biographer.

Franklin Roosevelt stands like a sharply formed rock in a shapeless sea.
spoken on Book TV by a Jackson biographer.

A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to conciliate with dignity, but a weak one is odious read more

A wise government knows how to enforce with temper, or to conciliate with dignity, but a weak one is odious in the former, and contemptible in the latter.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.