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"Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion."
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"Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us."

"I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world."

"There shall be no end to the government of God."

"For a country to have a great writer is like having another government. That's why no regime has ever loved great writers, only minor ones."

"No more distressing moment can ever face a British government than that which requires it to come to a hard, fast and specific decision."

"I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government."

"The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power."

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

"Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles."

"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."
Explore more quotes by James F. Cooper

"Candor is a proof of both a just frame of mind, and of a good tone of breeding. It is a quality that belongs equally to the honest man and to the gentleman."

"The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority."

"The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms."

"All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities."

"Slavery is no more sinful, by the Christian code, than it is sinful to wear a whole coat, while another is in tatters, to eat a better meal than a neighbor, or otherwise to enjoy ease and plenty, while our fellow creatures are suffering and in want."

"Party leads to vicious, corrupt and unprofitable legislation, for the sole purpose of defeating party."

"It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny."

"It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil."
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