George F. Will Quotes

Progressives think progress depends upon (that is, they sometimes define progress as) the concentration of power as high as possible in government’s regulatory apparatus. Hence, between 1960 and 2019, the 900 percent increase in federal grants to states — from $70 billion (adjusted for inflation) to $700 billion — came with strings, resembling chains, attached.

There's a very good reason that governments aren't supposed to compete with private-enterprise companies. Governments have monopolies on certain things, like eminent domain and deadly force.

[D]ecade after decade, through taxes and regulations, governments at all levels took ever-increasing control over people's lives, wealth, and property. The control grew exponentially, decade after decade. The rationale was that the control was necessary -- for society, for the poor, for the nation, even for freedom itself. Americans continued living their life of the lie: they continued believing that the more control government exercised over their lives and property, the freer they became.

Government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us.

A government role in our society should be inherently suspect …. There is something inherently coercive in the nature of government.

I would prefer the [USA] government to be the policeman and not the businessman.

Governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people.

Government can't do anything for you except in proportion as it can do something to you.

The government is a tyrant living by theft, and therefore has no business to engage in any business.

My quarrel is not with the legitimate role of government but with the unlimited role of government.

The problem is big government. If whoever controls government can impose his way upon you, you have to fight constantly to prevent the control from being harmful. With small, limited government, it doesn't much matter who controls it, because it can't do you much harm.

It isn't possible to give government just a little control over the economy and our lives. Once we cede that power to government, it uses the power to take more from us. That's why every year the government controls more of our lives.

There is no better example of the overreach of government than in environmental law.

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

We have seen an outrageous increase in the size, scope, and intrusiveness of the federal government.

If the government controls your health care, the government controls you. Obamacare was never about health care. It was about government power, dependency, and control.

Government has a legitimate sphere of operation. The problem arises when that sphere continually expands, encompassing areas where government lacks legitimacy.

It's no small irony that the government inevitably and invariably ends up promoting precisely that which they would most like to repress.

I don't like the idea that the government has so much of a say in things.

When bureaucrats talk about increasing our 'access' to x, y or z, what they're really talking about is increasing exponentially their control over our lives. As it is with the government health care takeover, so it is with the newly approved government plan to 'increase' Internet 'access.'

Taxpayers don't need any more big government mandates that have proven to be disastrous.

Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.

A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

I believe that government is too large, costs too much, spends too much, and has too much regulatory power in our lives.

Before my tenure, people didn't seem to think that citizens had a right to limit the size of their government.