I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it.
—Martin Sheen
When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.
—Winston Churchill
With words we govern men.
—Benjamin Disraeli
Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship.
—Harry S. Truman
The tax collector must love poor people, he's creating so many of them.
—Bill Vaughan
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
—Voltaire
Be thankful we're not getting all the government we're paying for.
—Will Rogers
The universe never did make sense; I suspect it was built on government contract.
—Robert A. Heinlein
Every government, whatever its form, character, or color—be it absolute or constitutional, monarchy or republic, Fascist, Nazi, or Bolshevist—is by its very nature conservative, static, intolerant of change and opposed to it.
—Emma Goldman
A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
—P.J. O'Rourke
The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.
—G. K. Chesterton
It's all very well to run around saying regulation is bad, get the government off our backs, etc. Of course our lives are regulated. When you come to a stop sign, you stop; if you want to go fishing, you get a license; if you want to shoot ducks, you can shoot only three ducks. The alternative is dead bodies at the intersection, no fish, and no ducks. OK?
—Molly Ivins
The most appalling cruelties are committed by apparently virtuous governments in expectation of a great good to come, never learning that the evil done now is the sure destroyer of the expected good.
—Katherine Anne Porter
Artists who whine because they need a grant and the government doesn't help them—well, tough shit. I had the same problem. I worked in a bookstore for seven years to make money to buy art supplies. And that was fine. I don't think artists should ever expect anything from anybody. For the artist, sacrifice and hardship are a part of the process.
—Patti Smith
It is supposed to be part of the American tradition that if we want to step out of line, we step out of line. Democracy isn't falling in line behind the president. Democracy is for people to think independently, be skeptical of government, look around and try to find out what's going on. And if they find out that government is deceiving them, to speak out as loudly as they can.
—Howard Zinn