Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made.
Grover ClevelandRead
He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote criticizes the idea that the wealthy can be trusted to care for the poor if the government supports them.
In this quote, Grover Cleveland is expressing skepticism about the notion that the rich, when given government support, will naturally take care of the less fortunate. Instead, he highlights a fundamental flaw in this thinking, suggesting that relying on the wealthy to be benevolent toward the poor is misguided and ignores the complexities of social responsibility and economic inequality.
Themes
GovernmentWealthResponsibilityPovertySocial Justice
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about economic inequality, one could use this quote to emphasize the need for governmental accountability.
More from Grover Cleveland
All quotes βUnswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement.
Grover ClevelandRead
Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people.
Grover ClevelandRead
Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.
Grover ClevelandRead
It is the responsibility of the citizens to support their government. It is not the responsibility of the government to support its citizens.
Grover ClevelandRead
Once the coffers of the federal government are opened to the public, there will be no shutting them again.
Grover ClevelandRead
Similar quotes
One vote. That's a big weapon you have there, Mister. In 1948, just one additional vote in each precinct would have elected Dewey. In 1960, one vote in each precinct in Illinois would have elected Nixon. One vote.
Paul HarveyRead
I would like Israel to be a Jewish state, and therefore not to annex over 2 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to Israel, which will make Israel a bi-national state.
Yitzhak RabinRead
Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.
Mikhail GorbachevRead
Controversial disputes are a part of democratic culture.
Angela MerkelRead
I was a Labour Party man but I found myself to the left of the Labour party in Nelson, militant as that was. I came to London and in a few months I was a Trotskyist.
C. L. R. JamesRead
Government proposes, bureaucracy disposes. And the bureaucracy must dispose of government proposals by dumping them on us.
P. J. O'RourkeRead