Tom Purcell: Some post-election quotes to ponder

The Democrats will be running the White House, the House and the Senate soon.

Before they make drastic changes, they may want to consider some interesting quotations on government.

My favorites reveal a general wariness of government - a key principle upon which our republic was founded: "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take everything you have." - Barry Goldwater

"The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse." - Edmund Burke

Well, Eddie, you got that right.

We just handed our government a blank check worth billions to bail out our financial institutions. And before we let Barack Obama "make government cool again," we may want to consider this: "The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

"Government is an association of men who do violence to the rest of us." - Leo Tolstoy

Sorry, Leo, but folks often forget how nasty government can be. Right now, folks are clamoring for our government to do something, anything, to fix our economic woes - forgetting, of course, that our government is a key contributor to those woes.

Here is where government is really effective: "Government's view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan

"Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer." - Ludwig von Mises

Tom Purcell is a humor columnist nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons. E-mail him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.