Quotations and Literature Forum

Who said, "People deserve the government they get"? I think it was Ayn Rand. Someone else says Jefferson.

Here's a few people that have said it:


I don't know, but H.L. Mencken said it best. "People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard."
~ Timothy Moultrie
http://www.awod.com/sclp/writings/thingsiveseen.html

"In democracy you get the goverment you deserve. Alternately you deserve the government you got."
~Josef Heller

Everything said and done, at the end of the day, we get the government we deserve and deserve the government we get.
~ P. Ramakrishnan
http://www.malaysia.net/aliran/ms991130.htm

"A people deserve the government they permit."
~attributed to the pseudonym "General R. Never,"
http://www.stormfront.org/rpo/PORNO.htm

"In Russia, it is a common saying that every people deserve the government they choose."
~Vladimir Viardo
http://www.geocities.com/nakamatsu_pian ... _0609.html

I recall what a British prime minister said years ago, "In a democracy you get the government you deserve and you deserve the government you get."
~Duane W. Compton
http://starbulletin.com/2001/04/26/edit ... tters.html

We have to let these turkeys know that we are not going to play games and go sideways and backwards. America deserves better. They say that you deserve the government you get.
~ Eldridge Cleaver
http://www.newagejournal.com/CLEAVER.HTM

"We deserve the government that we get. That's an old adage and it's really true."
~Patricia Boyd, executive director of the Minnesota Christian Coalition
http://www.mcchronicle.com/archive/111600/story11y.html

Atlas Shrugged? I didn't get around to reading that book until 1997 but at least I did get around to it. It had way too much filler. Who is John Galt? (The man who stopped the world?) I guess if I could write that good then I wouldn't be stuck down here in the backwater bottoms of the Forked Deer River in West Tennessee. (I guess there are worse places to be stuck.)

Thanks Thenostromo. It looks like an old Russian saying - that would explain Ayn Rand (who I think said it in one of her non-fiction works). I've found no mention of it at a Jefferson quote website.

Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle merite.
Every country has the government it deserves.

Lettres et Opuscules Inedites (1851) vol.1, letter 53 (15 August 1811)

Josephe de Maistre 1753-1821
French writer and diplomat

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What sort of Democracy could be the right or the most appropriate democracy for century 21? Which should the 3 more important things be than a new democracy should assure for the people?
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A must read topic! This will help for my research paper/term paper for my summer class.

In a democracy, people get the kind of government they deserve.~Adlai Stevenson. No source given.

The first thing you want to do is give yourself enough time to work. For an average length (10-20 pgs) paper you should give yourself a month to adequately collect the library research and materials. At a bare minimum you should give yourself a week. Organization will help you make the most of however much time you have. Write a quick schedule to help you keep track of time: list the days you have left and the time during the day you'll be able to work. You will need to allot yourself time to go to your school library, take notes, write an outline, write a first draft, and revise the paper. Try not to set yourself up for a lot of late nights, unless you're a night person. Generally, people do better work when they're alert.

"The government you elect is the government you deserve.", said Thomas Jefferson. "People deserve the government they get, and they deserve to get it good and hard.", said H.L. Mencken. So, yes, the people of a democracy are responsible for itsgovernment and its policies. Further, if those policies are atrocious, then the people of a state have the capacity to change those/that policies/government. If they do nothing about it, then they should not complain when retribution ensues.

Yes, i'm 100% sure that it was said by Thomas Jefferson, it was more than just a clever turn of phrase. I often hear this quote sounded as "In a democracy, people get the government they deserve".

Every country has the government it deserves ("Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite")Joseph de Maistre (1753-1851), Lettres et Opuscules Inédits vol. 1, letter 53, written on 15 August 1811 and published in 1851.

More infor here:
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new ... y_deserve/

[quote="Somerset"]
Yes, i'm 100% sure that it was said by Thomas Jefferson, it was more than just a clever turn of phrase. I often hear this quote sounded as "In a democracy, people get the government they deserve".

Another good one by Thomas Jefferson is:

"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."

Several sources attribute it to de Maistre unless you have a citation for Jefferson?

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized.Government is the means by which state policy is enforced, as well as the mechanism for determining the policy of the state.