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The responsibility for good government lies not just with governments themselves but also with every other part of the system they operate in, including media, non-governmental organisations and the public.

One essential of a free government is that it rest wholly on voluntary support. And one certain proof that a government is not free, is that it coerces more or less persons to support it, against their will.

The role of the teacher remains the highest calling of a free people. To the teacher, America entrusts her most precious resource, her children; and asks that they be prepared... to face the rigors of individual participation in a democratic society.

My concept of government's role in people's lives is that it is limited but legitimate, and essential when people have nowhere else to turn.

Government has the role of suiting people for freedom. People aren't made for freedom spontaneously. There's sort of a 19-year race between when people are born and when they become adults. And government has a role in making them, at the end of 19 years, suited to be upright, trustworthy repositories of popular sovereignty.

A government of, for and by the people, requires much from the people.

The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.

Parents don't need government to raise their kids. That's their job. But government can help them protect their children from influences they may not want their kids exposed to.