John William Draper Quotes

When the Master of the universe has points to carry in his government he impresses his will in the structure of minds.

I love people who try to keep the world in control - because the world is inherently not in control.

I like control.

The essence of government is control, or the attempt to control.

I was the law and order.

Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden.

In government it is order that matters.

My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it...People need somebody to watch over them.... Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

I hold to be of itself a lesson for all those who love liberty, and who would extend its blessings to their country. Men are not to be pedants in liberty, any more than in virtue. Though they are not to be oppressed by tyrants, they must at least be governed by their fellow-men. The great principles of independence in the heart of man are to be cherished and upheld; but order, prosperity, the purposes of society, must be accomplished. The many must delegate the government of themselves to the few. Control, executive power, must be lodged somewhere …

...chaos doesn't run the whole show.

Liberty is a product of order.

It would be better to have no laws at all, than to have too many.

The Constitution is only there to regulate matters.

Order and system are nobler things than power.

Question: Who governs the governors? Answer: Entropy

As freedom is the only safeguard of governments, so are order and moderation generally necessary to preserve freedom.

Only one in command: that's the way in the home And the way in the state when it must find Measures best for mankind.

If there be any one principle more widely than another confessed by every utterance, or more sternly than another imprinted on every atom of the visible creation, that principle is not liberty, but law.

I have very little experience of self-government. In fact, I am one of the most governed people in the world.

We have retained the forms and phrases of a republic, but in reality we are living under an oligarchy, not of courtesan, but of bureaucrats.

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

In its narrowest acceptation, order means obedience. A government is said to preserve order if it succeeds in getting itself obeyed.

Who watches the watchmen?

Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.

Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate, or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prescribed by some superior, and which the inferior is bound to obey.