---
title: "2 Bad government Quotes By Alasdair Gray"
description: "2 Bad government quotes by Alasdair Gray. Plus more from Alasdair Gray and more Bad government sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/alasdair-gray-13383_bad-government_only-bad-religions-depend-on-mysteries-j_115191.jpg"
---

> [“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police." A character's response to a discussion about eating from the tree of knowledge.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/only-bad-religions-depend-on-mysteries-just-as-bad-governments-depend/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/e52/alasdair-gray-13383_bad-government_only-bad-religions-depend-on-mysteries-j_115191.jpg)

> [“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police. Truth, beauty and goodness are not mysterious, they are the commonest, most obvious, most essential facts of life, like sunlight, air and bread. Only folk whose…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/only-bad-religions-depend-on-mysteries-just-as-bad-governments-depend-2/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/596/alasdair-gray-13383_bad-government_only-bad-religions-depend-on-mysteries-j_926030.jpg)

## Other authors on Bad government

- [Mehmet Murat ildan 6 quotes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bad-government/mehmet-murat-ildan/)
- [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b003/author-alexis-de-tocqueville-11183.jpg) Alexis de Tocqueville 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/bad-government/alexis-de-tocqueville/)

## More by Alasdair Gray

> [“At last she interrupted with a harsh rattle of laughter. "Oh, yes, I like this book! Crazy hopes of a glamorous, rich, colorful life…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/at-last-she-interrupted-with-a-harsh-rattle-of-laughter-oh-yes-i-like/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“Only bad religions depend on mysteries, just as bad governments depend on secret police." A character's response to a discussion about eating from the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/only-bad-religions-depend-on-mysteries-just-as-bad-governments-depend/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [But I do enjoy words—some words for their own sake! Words like river, and dawn, and daylight, and time. These words seem much richer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/but-i-do-enjoy-words-some-words-for-their-own-sake-words-like-river/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“Lanark said irritably, "You seem to understand my questions, but your answers make no sense to me." "That's typical of life, isn't it?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/lanark-said-irritably-you-seem-to-understand-my-questions-but-your/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [Are there many people without illness or disability who sit at home in the evening with clenched fists, continually changing the channel of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/are-there-many-people-without-illness-or-disability-who-sit-at-home/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“The world sometimes seems a chessboard where the pieces move themselves. I'm never sure what square to go to. Yet it can't be a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/the-world-sometimes-seems-a-chessboard-where-the-pieces-move/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [A good poem is a tautology. It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word which has…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/a-good-poem-is-a-tautology-it-expands-one-word-by-adding-a-number/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“But leaders need to be mostly dead. People want solid monuments to cling to, not confused men like themselves.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/but-leaders-need-to-be-mostly-dead-people-want-solid-monuments-to/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“One day after the exams, the teachers sat at their desks correcting papers while the pupils read comics, played chess or cards or talked…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/one-day-after-the-exams-the-teachers-sat-at-their-desks-correcting/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [Think of Florence, Paris, London, New York. Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger because he's already visited them in paintings,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/think-of-florence-paris-london-new-york-nobody-visiting-them-for-the/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [I distrust speech therapy. Words are the language of lies and evasions. Music cannot lie. Music talks to the heart.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/i-distrust-speech-therapy-words-are-the-language-of-lies-and-evasions/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [Movement turns dead dogs into maggots and daisies, and flour butter sugar an egg and a tablespoon of milk into Abernethy biscuits, and spermatozoa…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/movement-turns-dead-dogs-into-maggots-and-daisies-and-flour-butter/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“He watched them with the passionate regret with which he saw them play football or go to dances: the activity itself did not interest,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/he-watched-them-with-the-passionate-regret-with-which-he-saw-them/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“It is, but we can only help people by giving less than we take away from them. We enlarge the oasis by increasing the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/it-is-but-we-can-only-help-people-by-giving-less-than-we-take-away/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

> [“She is the swelling sail, trim rigging and bust sunlit deck of our matrimonial yacht. I am the low hull, with the invisible ballast…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alasdair-gray/she-is-the-swelling-sail-trim-rigging-and-bust-sunlit-deck-of-our/)

[Alasdair Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alasdair-gray/)

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