Purpose of government

Explore 11 quotes about Purpose of government

The happiness of society is the end of government.

John Adams

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Topic

Purpose of government Political theory Politics

Author

John Adams

Source

Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Era

American Revolutionary Period

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Adams, John. Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies. Philadelphia: John Dunlap, 1776.

Current Citation

Adams, John. "Thoughts on Government, Applicable to the Present State of the American Colonies, April 1776." John Adams: Revolutionary Writings 1775-1783, edited by Gordon S. Wood. Library of America, 2011.

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to the other.

Voltaire

Philosophical Dictionary

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Topic

Purpose of government

Author

Voltaire

Source

Philosophical Dictionary

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

French

Time

1764 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Voltaire. "Argent [Money]." Dictionnaire Philosophique [Philosophical Dictionary]. c. 1764.

To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity, among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.

Abraham Lincoln

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Topic

Rule of law Purpose of government Political theory Politics Government

Speaker

Abraham Lincoln

Source

Speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1859 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Address Before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin." 30 Sep. 1859, Milwawkee, WI, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, September 30, 1859." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

The great and chief end, therefore, of men's uniting into commonwealths and putting themselves under government is the preservation of their property.

John Locke

Two Treatises of Government

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Topic

Purpose of government Property rights Political theory Politics

Author

John Locke

Source

Second Treatise of Civil Government Two Treatises of Government

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1690 1690s 17th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Locke, John. "Second Treatise of Civil Government." Two Treatises of Government. London: Awnsham Churchill, 1690, ch. 9, sect. 124.

Current Citation

Locke, John. Second Treatise of Civil Government, edited by C. B. Macpherson. Hackett Publishing Company, 1980, ch. 9, sect. 124.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

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Topic

Purpose of government Political theory

Author

Thomas Jefferson

Source

Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1809 1800s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to the Republican Citizens of Washington County, Maryland. 31 Mar. 1809.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France

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Topic

Purpose of government Government

Author

Edmund Burke

Source

Reflections on the Revolution in France

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1790 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Burke, Edmund. Reflections on the Revolution in France. London: James Dodsley, 1790.

Current Citation

Burke, Edmund. "Reflections on the Revolution in France." The Portable Edmund Burke, edited by Isaac Kramnick. Penguin, 2009.

This government was instituted to secure the blessings of freedom, and…slavery is an unqualified evil to the negro, to the white man, to the soil, and to the State.

Abraham Lincoln

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Topic

Purpose of government Government Slavery Freedom American politics

Speaker

Abraham Lincoln

Source

Speeches of Abraham Lincoln

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1858 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. Speech in Illinois. 11 Sept. 1858, Edwardsville, IL, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "From Portion of Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois, September 11, 1858." Lincoln's Selected Writings, edited by David S. Reynolds. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016.

One legislator accused me of having a nineteenth-century attitude on law and order. That is a totally false charge. I have an eighteenth-century attitude. That is when the Founding Fathers made it clear that the safety of law-abiding citizens should be one of the government's primary concerns.

Ronald Reagan

More information about this quote

Topic

Law and order Crime Purpose of government Government

Speaker

Ronald Reagan

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Reagan, Ronald. Address to the Republican State Central Committee Convention. Republican State Central Committee Convention. 7 Sept. 1973, USA.

The great problem of legislation is, so to organize the civil government of a community... That in the operation of human institutions upon social action, self-love and social may be made the same.

John Quincy Adams

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Topic

Purpose of government

Author

John Quincy Adams

Language

English

Time

1845 1840s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Adams, John Quincy. "Society and Civilization." The American Review, July 1845.

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties; and that in its government the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.

Louis Brandeis

Whitney v. California

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More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of government Freedom

Author

Louis Brandeis

Source

Whitney v. California

Medium

Supreme Court opinion Legal opinion

Genre

Legal writing

Language

English

Time

1927 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Brandeis, Louis. United States, Supreme Court. Whitney v. California. United States Reports, vol. 274, 16 May 1927, pp. 357-379. Justia, supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/274/357/.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

John Ruskin

Fors Clavigera

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Topic

Purpose of government

Author

John Ruskin

Source

Fors Clavigera

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

English

Time

1876 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Ruskin, John. "Letter the Sixty-Ninth." Fors Clavigera: Letters to the Workmen and Labourers of Great Britain. London: Hazell, Watson & Viney/Kent: George Allen, 1 Sept. 1876.

Current Citation

Ruskin, John. Fors Clavigera IV-VI. The Works of John Ruskin, edited by Edward Tyas Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. Vol. 28, Cambridge University Press, 2010, letter 67.