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No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It's because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand - demand - demand change.

When the people become involved in their government, government becomes more accountable, and our society is stronger, more compassionate, and better prepared for the challenges of the future.

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.

Government works less efficiently when it begins to grow out of control and takes on more and more of the responsibilities that belong to the citizens.

But without a caring society, without each citizen voluntarily accepting the weight of responsibility, government is destined to grow even larger, taking more of your money, burrowing deeper into your lives.

Government is force, pure and simple. There's no way to sugar-coat that. And because government is force, it will attract the worst elements of society - people who want to use government to avoid having to earn their living and to avoid having to persuade others to accept their ideas voluntarily.

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.

There is too much government today. We've got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

The best government rests on the people, and not on the few, on persons and not on property, on the free development of public opinion and not on authority.

You have to believe that it's through politics that societies can lead social and economic and political change.