“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best stage, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”
More from Thomas Paine on Government
“Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built on the ruins of the bowers of paradise.”
“That government is best which governs least.”
“A hereditary monarch is as absurd a position as a hereditary doctor or mathematician.”
“Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil in its worst state an intolerable one.”
“Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.”
Others on Government
Ronald Reagan
4 quotes“Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
Hamilton
3 quotes“Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and ju...”
Barbara Tuchman
3 quotes“Strong prejudices in an ill-formed mind are hazardous to government.”
Andrew Jackson
2 quotes“There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.”
Daniel Webster
2 quotes“The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.”
Edmund Burke
2 quotes“All government - indeed every human benefit and enjoyment every virtue and every prudent act - is founded on compromis...”
Ron Paul
2 quotes“Counterfeit money should not be done by anyone, whether it be government or private.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
1 quote“A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.”
Anton Chekhov
1 quote“The State is not God. It has not the right to take away what it cannot restore when it wants to.”
Bertrand Russell
1 quote“Government can easily exist without laws, but law cannot exist without government.”
President Trump
1 quote“The most basic duty of government is to defend the lives of its own citizens. Any government that fails to do so is a go...”
H. L. Mencken
1 quote“Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.”