Rulers

Famous quotes containing the word rulers:

    The government does not concern me much, and I shall bestow the fewest possible thoughts on it. It is not many moments that I live under a government, even in this world. If a man is thought- free, fancy-free, imagination-free ... unwise rulers or reformers cannot fatally interrupt him.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Of the best rulers The people only know that they exist; The next best they love and praise The next they fear; And the next they revile. When they do not command the people’s faith, Some will lose faith in them, And then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished, their work done, The people all remark, “We have done it ourselves.”
    Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.)

    The rulers of the earth are all worth knowing; they suggest moral reflections: and the respect that one naturally has for God’s vice-regents here on earth is greatly increased by acquaintance with them.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)