Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

I can't help thinking if she - the director of a government agency - is this ignorant about what funding is available and where the money comes from - how often lower-level bureaucrats must give wrong answers when people are looking for help to start a business.

About astrology and palmistry: they are good because they make people vivid and full of possibilities. They are communism at its best. Everybody has a birthday and almost everybody has a palm.

The government has become a mechanism for distributing largess, and your census form is your ticket.

In philanthropy, many of us give a little bit and each year we give more and more to see what actually works and not just throw money out there and see if it's going to work. If the government did the same thing, fabulous.

The government should not pick up every single bit of healthcare to where literally 60 percent of every dollar is just in your last 60 days of life. We should be more balanced than that and give people a chance to understand what the government should and should not pay for.

The government will see that human spaceflight is useful - for science and the economy - and inspirational.

It is because of me that today the union government has sanctioned special funds for the development of Bihar.

Why should a city be mandated to do something by the federal government or state government without the money to do it?

I do think actually in this case the government does get credit for funding some of the basic research.

Charities should not become the junior partner in the welfare state; whether or not they provide services funded by Government or, indeed, receive grants from Government, they must remain independent and focused on their mission.

If there is any conflict between Congress and science, Congress will win. Congress is paying the bills.

In a secular, pluralistic democracy these issues of life and death involve questions about the right of individual Americans to decide and the obligation of the federal government to finance their decisions.

Democracy’s opportunity. Here is the opportunity to be of service to the people. Here is the chance for this party to have been of service to the people of the United States. Here is our chance to have been of help to the poor man. Here is our chance to have relieved him of the burdens and to have given him the benefits of a government that could have promoted the enterprises and furnished the conveniences and the facilities needed by every man, woman, and child in this country.

Perhaps the greatest threat to freedom and democracy in the world today comes from the formation of unholy alliances between government and business. This is not a new phenomenon. It used to be called fascism... .The outward appearances of the democratic process are observed, but the powers of the state are diverted to the benefit of private interests.

There is, of course, always the possibility, that two such powerful and well--financed agencies as CIA and DIA will become rivals and competitors.

Very few governments have the money to meet the needs of their people….The private sector has most of the resources.

A government may only govern so long as the people, through their representatives, vote it the money to carry on.

Public opinion is very important in the United States. It affects the way Congress deals with issues.

Millions are spend annually on the cultivation and dissemination of science by the public authorities who will not give a penny for the advancement of astrology or sorcery. In other words, our society is deeply committed to beliefs about the nature of things, beliefs which are different from those to which the early Egyptian or Aztec civilizations were committed.

Institutions are increasingly persuaded that political maneuvering is more important than scientific justification in securing federal funds.

My father Kakabhai Haribhai Shroff was an astrologer.

Finally, assuming that many of those are fulfilled, which won't be easy in tight budget times, we're taking the supply side at the basic research level, because that's where government is absolutely fundamental.

Were the superfluities of a nation valued, and made a perpetual tax or benevolence, there would be more alms-houses than poor, schools than scholars, and enough to spare for government besides.

Civilization as we know it today would be in jeopardy if the Republicans win the Senate.

We are at a crossroads over how the federal government in Washington and state legislatures and city councils across the land allocate their financial resources. Which fork we take will say a lot about Americans and our values.