America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. By trying to seize far more power than is necessary over American citizens, the federal government is destroying its own legitimacy. We face a choice not of anarchy or authoritarianism, but a choice of limited government or unlimited government .

— James Bovard

James Bovard Quotes

Dependency is the highest political good – at least for politicians. Since the 1930s, politicians have striven to leave no vote unbought.

— James Bovard

The only things government can do are regulate and redistribute, prohibit and penalize, confiscate and command. Are these the things that liberty is made of? Somebody else’s money and an endless list of Thou Shalt Nots?

— James Bovard

Not only has the number of government employees multiplied in recent decades, but the rise of government unions further stacks the political odds against private citizens.

— James Bovard

American democracy is capsizing as a result of the vast increase in the number of government dependents and government employees.

— James Bovard

The more powerful government becomes, the more abuses it commits and the more lies it must tell.

— James Bovard

Rather than a democracy, we increasingly have an elective dictatorship. People are merely permitted to choose who will violate the laws and the Constitution.

— James Bovard

The more freedoms Americans lose, the more dangerous government becomes.

— James Bovard

The government’s appearing to be a necessary evil does not oblige people to trust it. We face a choice of trusting government or trusting freedom-trusting overlords who have lied and abused their power or trusting individuals to make the most of their own lives.

— James Bovard

Governments and citizens blend together only in the imaginations of political theorists. Government is, and always will be, an alien power over private citizens. There is no magic in a ballot box that makes government any less coercive.

— James Bovard

It is absurd to expect governments to descend gradually, step-by-step into barbarism – as if there was a train schedule to political hell and people could get off at any stop along the way.

— James Bovard

Well, one of the first things is to restore the rule of law, to place the government back under the cage of law. Another thing is to stop falling for the myth of democracy.

— James Bovard

People are so docile right now. It is almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own selfish interests.

— James Bovard

Some of the folks on both sides might be sincere, but it does seem as if it is only the opposition that cares about the Bill of Rights most of the time.

— James Bovard

Politicians as a class are dangerous, that people who are seeking power over us are not, by definition, our friends.

— James Bovard

Some politicians are aware of the Bill of Rights. It seems that the opposition party is far more likely to invoke it, to wave it in the air, this is what we saw from a lot of republicans during the Clinton Administration, and we are seeing the same from Democrats under Bush.

— James Bovard

As we learned from the Clinton administration and much of the media, a machine gun in the hands of a federal agent is now a symbol of benevolence and concern for a child’s well-being.

— James Bovard

America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. By trying to seize far more power than is necessary over American citizens, the federal government is destroying its own legitimacy. We face a choice not of anarchy or authoritarianism, but a choice of limited government or unlimited government .

— James Bovard

Politicians nowadays treat Americans like medical orderlies treat Alzheimer’s patients, telling them anything that will keep them subdued. It doesn’t matter what untruths the people are fed because they will not long remember. But in politics, forgotten falsehoods almost guarantee new treachery.

— James Bovard

Freedom to vote is valuable primarily as a means to safeguard other freedoms.

— James Bovard

As soon as people drop the reins on government, government will leash the people.

— James Bovard
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