• “The habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those entrusted with its administration… The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.”

  -George Washington, 1796

• “The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people, whatever they… can not do… for themselves… In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere.”

  -Abraham Lincoln, 1854

• “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you’ve got.”

  -Ronald Reagan, 1981

• “The era of big government is over.”

  -Bill Clinton, 1996

• “We will prove that there is no problem too large for government to solve, and no concern too small for it to care about.”

  -Zohran Mamdani, 2025

Mamdani’s comment made us think of another famous bit of wisdom attributed to Lincoln:

• “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.”