Governance and Transparency

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. Plato

It's not the voting that's democracy; it's the counting. Tom Stoppard

For in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the very definition of slavery. Jonathan Swift

I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it. Alexander Woollcott

Here is my first principle of foreign policy: good government at home. William Ewart Gladstone

Laws too gentle are seldom obeyed; too severe, seldom executed. Benjamin Franklin

Work and creativity are what built this country- not money. Karl Hess

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means. Georges Bernanos

Bureaucracy is the epoxy that greases the wheels of progress. Dr Jim Boren

Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. Justice Louis D Brandeis

Corruption and hypocrisy out not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtadly are today. Mahatma Gandhi

The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference. Bess Myerson

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently. Friedrich Nietzsche

Corruption never has been compulsory. Anthony Eden

The Romans, like others, as soon as they grew rich, grew corrupt; and in their corruption sold the lives and freedoms of themselves, and of one another. Thomas Blackwell

There are, in every age, new errors to be rectified, and new prejudices to be opposed. Johnson

No people can be great who have ceased to be virtuous. Johnson

Good government is no substitute for self- government. Mahatma Gandhi

There are two kinds of people- those who do the work and those who take the credit. Try to be in the first group, there is less competition there. Indira Gandhi

Praise and money, the two powerful corrupters of mankind. Samuel Johnson

An evil- disposed citizen cannot affect any changes for the worse in a republic, unless it be already corrupt. Machiavelli

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder. George Washington

A minister who moves about in society is in a position to read the signs of the times even in a festive gathering, but one who remains shut up in his office learns nothing. Duc de Choiseul

Politics is more difficult than physics. Albert Einstein

All political power is a trust. Charles James Fox

He serves his party best who serves the country best. Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Politics can only be a small part of what we are. It's a way of seeing, it's not all- seeing in itself. Brian Keenan

Those who would tread politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other. John Morley

Better a hundred times an honest and capable administration of an erroneous policy than a corrupt and incapable administration of a good one. Edward J Phelps

Political necessities sometimes turn out to be political mistakes. George Bernard Shaw

At a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self- evident. Schopenhauer

We have no constitution which functions in the absence of a moral people. John Adams

Bureaucracies are designed to perform public business. But as soon as a bureaucracy is established, it develops an autonomous spiritual life and comes to regard the public as the enemy. Brooks Atkinson

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections upon human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. James Madison

Whatever is morally wrong can never be politically right. Abraham Lincoln

Those who talk about the peoples of our day being given up to robbery and similar vices will find that they are all due to the fact that those who ruled them behaved in like manner. Niccolo Machiavelli

There are several good protections against temptations, but the surest is cowardice. Mark Twain

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. Woodrow Wilson

Far more has been accomplished for the welfare and progress of mankind by preventing bad actions than by doing good ones. William Lyon

Knowledge is the true organ of sight, not the eyes. Panchantantra

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. Publius Cornelius Tacitus

All bad precedents began as justifiable measures. Gaius Julius Caesar

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. David Brin

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded. C L De Montesquieu

You can't get rich in politics unless you're a crook. Harry S Truman

Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. Ambrose Bierce

We can’t solve the problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein

When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold are legislators. P J O'Rourke