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"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."
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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

"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."

"All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity."

"They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another;' a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory."

"America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies."

"A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate."

"No civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law."

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

"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."

"The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world."

"The very existence of government at all, infers inequality. The citizen who is preferred to office becomes the superior to those who are not, so long as he is the repository of power, and the child inherits the wealth of the parent as a controlling law of society."
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