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Governance Quotes
"On top of the government-hierarchy you need an unpolluted group of scientists to give a nation the best direction."
28
"Policy was not reconsidered because the governing group had no habit of purposeful consultation."
26
"A minister's (cabinet member's) function was not to DO the work but to see that it got done."
26
"The 20th Century proved that there is nothing more dangerous to the health of ethnic minority communities than big government."
23
"The government can make laws but they can't make people live by these laws."
21
"Indeed, it is a sign of marked political weakness in anycommonwealth if the people tend to be carried away by mere oratory, if theytend to value words in and for themselves, as divorced from the deeds for whichthey are supposed to stand. The phrase-maker, the phrase-monger, the readytalker, however great his power, whose speech does not make for courage,sobriety, and right understanding, is simply a noxious element in the bodypolitic, and it speaks ill for the public if he has influence over them. To admirethe gift of oratory without regard to the moral quality behind the gift is to dowrong to the republic."
21
"In our country, only what is talked about is seen as reform. If it isn't talked about, it isn't seen as reform. It shows our ignorance. My mantra is reform to transform, and I say in my government - Reform, Perform and Transform."
21
"The Englishman, as an American observed, felt himself the best-governed citizen in the world, even when in opposition he believed the incumbents were ruining the country."
21
"My focus is on governance. Country has been at greatest loss because governments were run only for elections. Governments must not run only for elections. The government should be a bona fide attempt of meeting the demands and expectations of the common people."
20
"Anarchy is law and freedom without force.Despotism is law and force without freedom.Barbarism force without freedom and law.Republicanism is force with freedom and law."
20
"Authority, when first detecting chaos at its heels, will entertain the vilest schemes to save its orderly facade."
20
"First, we need to focus government on the things that are required of the State. Second, we need to achieve competence in government so that the State delivers on the things it sets out to do."
19
"Let the government not be an instructor but a parent who loves and adjusts to the needs of the nation, But remember a parent does what makes things look good to the entire family without segregation."
19
"The art of governing consists in not letting men grow old in their jobs."
19
"Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program."
19
"A silver-tongued charlatan and a half-wit society are made for each other! When these two come together in an election, a great disaster happens: Charlatan comes to power!"
18
"This was the argument put forward during the War when the expenditure on the army and navy had to be met; and this was the argument put forward in Germany and Austria after the War when a part of the population had to be provided with cheap food, the losses on the operation of the railways and other public undertakings met, and reparations payments made. The assistance of inflation is invoked whenever a government is unwilling to increase taxation or unable to raise a loan; that is the truth of the matter."
18
"Most people don't realize, I really have no faith in politics. I'm not a politician. If I thought you could change human hearts by laws, I would, but I don't."
17
"How many more of these stinking, double-downer sideshows will we have to go through before we can get ourselves straight enough to put together some kind of national election that will give me and the at least 20 million people I tend to agree with a chance to vote FOR something, instead of always being faced with that old familiar choice between the lesser of two evils?"
17
"Development has to be achieved collectively and it has to be quick paced and inclusive."
17
"I think the positive competition between states in India is one of the most positive dynamics that the country has."
17
"Leaders who do not help the people must be replaced by the people."
17
"Metaphorically, governance is like a "Steer, Risk Management is like a "Brake."
16
"The financial elite already have the politicians in their pockets, as a result of their lobbying."
16
"There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality."
15
"They despite and hate the government more and more, but they don't know how to set about changing it. The country is dying for some sort of lead, and so far all it is getting is a crowd of fresh professional leaders. Who never get anywhere. Who do not seem to be aiming anywhere. We are living in a world of jaded politics. Poverty increases, prices rise, unemployment spreads, mines, factories stagnate, and nothing is done."
14
"The Bill of Rights wasn't enacted to give us any rights. It was enacted so the Government could not take away from us any rights that we already had."
14
"The bureaucrat is a man who administers things and people, and who relates himself to people as to things."
14
"A statesman who is enamored of existing evils as distin-quished from the Liberal who wishes to replace them with others."
14
"Every word of etatistic thought is contradicted by the doctrines of sociology and economics; this is why etatists endeavour to prove that these sciences do not exist. In their opinion, social affairs are shaped by the State. To the law, all things are possible; and there is no sphere in which State intervention is not omnipotent."
14
"We Americans have many grave problems to solve, many threatening evils to fight, and many deeds to do, if, as we hope and believe, we have the wisdom, the strength, and the courage and the virtue to do them. But we must face facts as they are. We must neither surrender ourselves to a foolish optimism, nor succumb to a timid and ignoble pessimism."
14
"There is a lot of talk about "rigged games" as of late. Big government is the most insipid of all "rigged games". There is no choice available to the public allowing it to avoid a big over-arching government. You can always chose not do business with a big corporation. Corporations that are distasteful can be avoided. A big, powerful, government bent on intrusion cannot be avoided."
14
"Politics should be a field that attracts statesmen, not future CEO's and board members."
14
"When some claim demarcation and "regulation, others fancy "deregulation, preferring foxes guarding the henhouse or chicken yards with free chickens and free foxes. Friend or foe, hen or fox, anyone can have a go. ['This far']"
14
"What, then, is the government? An intermediary body established between the subjects and the sovereign for their mutual communication, a body charged with the execution of the laws and the maintenance of freedom, both civil and political."
14
"An assembly is extra slow in taking actions."
14
"If you want to govern the people,You must place yourself below them.If you want to lead people,You must learn how to follow them."
14
"The hatred the 'Christian' right wing harbors for the SA Constitution is not htere because of an absence of 'God' in state machinery and the excised phrase 'in humble submission to almighty God' - but because it no longer places THEM in a position to claim that THEY represent the will of that 'God' and to act as though it were true."
14
"M-governance is empowered governance. It has the potential to make development a truly inclusive and comprehensive mass movement. It puts governance into everyone's reach. It puts governance in your hands 24/7."
13
"On close inspection, we shall find that religion, and not fear, has ever been the cause of the long-lived prosperity of an absolute government."
13
"Politics devoid of ethics does not further human welfare, and life without morality reduces humans to the level of beasts."
13
"This apartment, which you no doubt profanely suppose to be the shop of Will Wimble the undertaker --a man whom we know not, and whose plebeian appellation has never before this night thwarted our royal ears --this apartment, I say, is the Dais-Chamber of our Palace, devoted to the councils of our kingdom, and to other sacred and lofty purposes."
13
"It is the people who control the Government, not the Government the people."
13
"Truth is commodity in political consumption."
13
"There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences."
13
"Government has become ungovernable; that is, it cannot leave off governing. Law has become lawless; that is, it cannot see where laws should stop. The chief feature of our time is the meekness of the mob and the madness of the government."
13
"Always remember: When government accepts responsibility for people, then people no longer take responsibility for themselves."
13
"The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart."
13
"Any nation that teaches and make there people look for miracles are making their people weak."
13
"While a democratic process is morally desirable for arriving at a decision, it doesn't necessarily produce the best outcomes."
12
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