Quotes: Bureaucracy, Bureaucrats, Part 1

(situation in which less and less is done by more and more officials; government agency where after all is said and done, more is said than done)


Quotations

It is highly improbable that the bureaucrat will put his life on the line. It is absolutely impossible that he’ll put his job on the line.
—Eduardo Galeano, Omni

Bureaucrats write memoranda both because they appear to be busy when they are writing and because the memos, once written, immediately become proof that they were busy.
—Charles Peters

Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.
—Milton Friedman

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.
—Aesop

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
—George Bernard Shaw

Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries. [How true, how true!]
—Douglas Casey

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.
—P. J. O’Rourke

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
—Will Rogers

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberrty.
—Eugene McCarthy

The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.
—Mark Twain

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.
—Winston Churchill

What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.
—Edward Langley

The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter; they are an entire banquet.
—Mark Twain

I believe there’s something out there watching over us. Unfortunately, it’s the government.
—Woody Allen

Can any of you seriously say the Bill of Rights could get through Congress today? It wouldn’t even get out of commitee.
—F. Lee Bailey, attorney

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.
—Simon Cameron

Never underestimate the power of very stupid people in large groups.
—John Kenneth Galbraith


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