"The bringing-about of order is the first and fundamental task of government. We accept limits on our rights for the sake of a larger social compact all the time."
― Jon Meacham
Topic(s):
Government
More From Jon Meacham
- "It would be great if politics were fact-based, but it is not, and it is surely not nuance-based. What works in a classroom or a think tank does not work on Capitol Hill or in the White House. Obama sometimes seems to be running the Brookings Institution, not the country."
- "The power of the American system of republicanism lies in its capacity to allow religious belief to be a competing, not a controlling, factor in American life."
- "If a person is homosexual by nature – that is, if one’s sexuality is as intrinsic a part of one’s identity as gender or skin color – then society can no more deny a gay person access to the secular rights and religious sacraments because of his homosexuality than it can reinstate Jim Crow."
More In Government
- "All of us should have free choice when it comes to patriotic displays… a government wisely acting within its bounds will earn loyalty and respect from its citizens. A government dare not demand the same."― Jesse Ventura
- "I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive."― Thomas Jefferson
- "When man lives under government, he is fallen, his worth is gone, and his nature tarnished."― Adam Weishaupt