A government of laws, and not of men.

-Adams,John
  In the Boston Gazette, no.7. The phrase was later incorporated into the Massachusetts Constitution (1780).

There are checks and balances in governmentöthe checksgo to candidates and the balance to the people.

-Anonymous
Quoted in Sunday Morning, CBS  T V broadcast,17 May1987.

From the cradle to the grave, Even if I misbehave, There's a place for me On government subsidy.

-Anonymous
Quoted by a caller from Baltimore on Station WAMU, Washington,15  Jun1993.

Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.

-1st Earl
  Speech, Oxford,14  Jun.

The government of a woman has been a rare thing at all times; felicity in such government a rarer thing still; felicityand long continuance together the rarest thing of all.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
Quoted in  J E Neale The Age of Catherine de Medici and Essays in Elizabethan History (1963), p.217.

The best reason why monarchy is a strong government is, that it is an intelligible government. The mass of mankind understand it, and they hardlyanywhere in the world understand any other.

-Bagehot,Walter
  The English Constitution, ch.6,'The Monarchy'.

When the call came for me to form a Government, one of my first thoughts was that it should be a Government of which Harrow would not be ashamed.

-Baldwin (of Bewdley), Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl
Attributed.

His Majesty's Government looks with favour upon the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jews.

-Balfour, ArthurJames Balfour, 1st Earl
  The Balfour Declaration, made in a letter to Lord Rothschild, 2 Nov.

   Un mari, comme un gouvernement, ne doit jamais avouer de faute. A husband, like a government, never needs to admit a fault.

-Balzac, Honore¤   de
  Physiologie du mariage.

Beaverbrook is so pleased to be in the Government that heislikethetowntart who has finally married themayor.

-Baxter, Sir Beverley (Arthur)
  Remark attributed to Baxter in Sir Henry Channon Chips: the Diaries (1967), entry for12  Jun.

Wehave beenthe dreamers.We have beenthesufferers. Now wearethebuilders.We wantthe complete political extinction of theTory Partyöand 25 years of Labour Government, for we cannot do in five years what requires to be done.

-Bevan, Aneurin
  Labour Party conference, Blackpool,18 May.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

-Beveridge,William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron
  Social Insurance and  Allied Services, pt.7.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son isgiven: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,Counseller,The mighty God, The everlasting Father,The Prince of Peace.Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, uponthethrone of David, and uponhis kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the L of hosts will perform this.

-Bible (Old Testament)
ORDIsaiah 9:6^7.

   Ask me my three main priorities for Government, and I tell you: education, education and education.

-Blair,Tony (Anthony Charles Lynton)
  Speech at the Labour Party Conference,1 Oct.

No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love. The only queer people are those who don't love anybody.

-Brown, Rita Mae
  Speech, 28  Aug, at the opening ceremony of the Gay Olympics, San Francisco.

   Thething whichamazesme isthat I know perfectly well, as a historian, that there is corruption in any governmentöthere's always corruption. It's bad when it's more than fifteen percent.

-Brunet, Michel
Interviewed by Ramsay Cook in Eleanor Cook (ed)  The Craft of History (1973).

   Therearetwo ideas of government.Therearethose who believethat, if you will only legislatetomakethewell-to- do prosperous, their prosperity will leak through on those below. The Democratic idea, however, has been that if you legislateto make the masses prosperous, their prosperity will find its way up through every class which rests upon them.

-Bryan,WilliamJennings
  Speech at the Democratic National Convention,10  Jul.

This is not an easy time for humorists because the government is far funnier than we are.

-Buchwald, Art
  Speech to international meeting of satirists and cartoonists. Reported in the NewYork Times, 28  Jun.

All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

-Burke, Edmund
  On Conciliation with  America.

If any man ask me what a free government is, I answer that for any practical purpose, it is what the people think it so.

-Burke, Edmund
  Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol.