Governance & Administration quotes for UPSC & State PCS

Delay is preferable to error.

Politics is the art of the possible.

If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.

Bureaucracy is the death of all sound work.

With insufficient data it is easy to go wrong.

Ideal legislators do not vote their interests.

The fault is in the system and not in the men.

No policy is worth anything outside of reality.

Good order is the foundation of all good things.

Early and provident fear is the mother of safety.

Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.

A bureaucracy always tends to become a pedantocracy.

Governing a large country is like frying a small fish.

One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing.

The best way to solve any problem is to remove the cause.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.

The great city is that which has the greatest man or woman.

Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse.

We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.

It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last.

The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest.

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

It is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to frame one.

Laws which are consistent in theory often prove chaotic in practice.

A government which cannot be reformed does not merit to be preserved.

Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes.

Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Every political good carried to the extreme must be productive of evil.

Arms are of little value in the field unless there is wise counsel at home.

Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.

I have in general no very exalted opinion of the virtue of paper government.

If the people have no faith in their rulers, there is no standing for the state.

Between the idea And the reality Between the motion And the act Falls the Shadow.

A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

Size seems to make many organizations slow-thinking, resistant to change and smug.

The free individual has been justified as his own master; the state as his servant.

If you would not have a man flinch when the crisis comes, train him before it comes.

You‘ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.

It would be better to have no laws at all than to have them in such profusion as we do.

One has to make a decision when a condition is likely to degenerate if nothing is done.

There is always a strong case for doing nothing, especially for doing nothing yourself.

This Treasury paper, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read.

Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

One must give one power a ballast, so to speak, to put it in a position to resist another.

We do not need more laws. No country suffers from a shortage of laws. We need a new model.

One of the most difficult of the philosopher's tasks is to find out where the shoe pinches.

Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security.

Constant attention by a good nurse may be just as important as a major operation by a surgeon.

The politician has not to revenge what has happened but to ensure that it does not happen again.

All registers which, it is acknowledged, ought to be kept secret, ought certainly never to exist.

In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless but planning is indispensable.

No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people.

The reason for having diplomatic relations is not to confer a compliment, but to secure a convenience.

Bureaucracy is simultaneously the most crippling of Indian diseases and the highest of Indian art forms.

Our government shouldn’t make promises we cannot keep — but we must keep the promises we’ve already made.

A management decision is irresponsible if it risks disaster this year for the sake of a grandiose future.

Whenever our neighbour's house is on fire, it cannot be amiss for the engines to play a little on our own.

Secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy; it ought not, therefore, to be the system of a regular government.

One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.

To listen to the interests of all, marks an ordinary government; to foresee them, marks a great government.

Halting funding for the World Health Organization during a world health crisis is as dangerous as it sounds.

As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are soft-hearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

Those who govern must see how the people react to administration. Ultimately, the people are the final arbiters.

Theoretical approaches have their place and are, I suppose, essential but a theory must be tempered with reality.

Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee-rooms is Congress at work.

We hope all danger may be overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be extremely dangerous.

The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.

It is not by the consolidation or concentration, of powers, but by their distribution that good government is effected.

It is an unfailing maxim, that if policy enjoins an act of violence, its execution must never be entrusted to the violent.

Eaten bread is soon forgotten. Dangers which are warded off by effective precautions and foresight are never even remembered.

They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer — not an easy answer — but simple.

Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough. No matter how right, they must be chiseled into law and institutions.

a matter in regard to which if something be not done, something will do itself one day, and in a fashion that will please nobody

A form of government that is not the result of a long sequence of shared experiences, efforts, and endeavors can never take root.

From whence it follows, that were the publique and private interest are most closely united, there is the publique most advanced.

But history tells us that true progress is only possible where governments exist to serve their people, and not the other way around.

All government — indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act — is founded on compromise and barter.

We cannot afford to raise any institution to the rank of a fetish. To do so would be simply to become the slaves of our own machinery.

I think myself that we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.

The criticism of the reformers was directed not so much at the weakness or cruelty of those in authority, as at a bad economy of power.

This is an era of specialists, each of whom sees his own problem and is unaware of or intolerant of the larger frame into which it fits.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

The essence of the modern state is the union of the universal with the full freedom of the particular, and with the welfare of individuals.

So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.

The good or healthy society would then be defined as one that permitted people's highest purposes to emerge by satisfying all their basic needs.

Yes, there was an element of abstraction and unreality in misfortune. But when an abstraction starts to kill you, you have to get to work on it.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. Men have a right that these wants should be provided for by this wisdom.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

Patched-up diplomatic solutions designed to answer the needs of the moment rarely last, and as they unravel they can actually make things worse.

We have found, in our country, that when people have the right to make decisions as close to home as possible, they usually make the right decisions.

Political ideals must be based upon ideals for the individual life. The aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals as good as possible.

Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving — HOW NOT TO DO IT.

The important thing for Government is not to do things which individuals are doing already... but to do those things which at present are not done at all.

A thousand horrid Prodigies foretold it. A feeble government, eluded Laws, A factious Populace, luxurious Nobles, And all the maladies of stinking states.

No society can function as a society, unless it gives the individual member social status and function, and unless the decisive social power is legitimate.

Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.

We’ve got to resist the false trap that says either there should be no accountability for police or that every police officer is suspect no matter what they do.

It cannot at this time be too often repeated; line upon line; precept upon precept; until it comes into the currency of a proverb, To innovate is not to reform.

There is nothing that gives a man consequence, and renders him fit for command, like a support that renders him independent of everybody but the State he serves.

The people are starving. They need food; they need medicine; they need education. They do not need a skyscraper to house the ruling party and a 24-hour TV station.

There is -- in world affairs -- a steady course to be followed between an assertion of strength that is truculent and a confession of helplessness that is cowardly.

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma: but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest.

Men sometimes submit to shame, to tyranny, to conquest, but they never long suffer anarchy. There is no people so barbarous that they escape this general law of humanity

The old saw is that the Quakers went to the New World to do good and ended up doing well. Today, well-meaning reformers go to Washington to do good and end up doing harm.

With much care and skill power has been broken into fragments in the American township, so that the maximum possible number of people have some concern with public affairs.

Attempting to liberate the oppressed without their reflective participation in the act of liberation is to treat them as objects that must be saved from a burning building.

Don't get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one.

Nearly all our problems are made by humans and can be solved by humans. No social convention, no political system, no economic hypothesis, no religious dogma is more important.

It is reconciled in policy; and politics ought to be adjusted, not to human reasonings, but to human nature; of which the reason is but a part; and by no means the greatest part.

Government is not a machine, but a living thing. It falls, not under the theory of the universe, but under the theory of organic life. It is accountable to Darwin, not to Newton.

I guess this is why I hate governments. It is always the rule, the fine print, carried out by the fine print men. There's nothing to fight, no wall to hammer with frustrated fists.

nobody knows the solution to every problem; rather than blindly following the prescriptions of others, Africans need to think and act for themselves, and learn from their mistakes.

There's no simple formula here. But we must try as best we can to balance isolation and engagement, pressure and incentives, so that human rights and dignity are advanced over time.

Some part of life – perhaps the most important part – must be left to the spontaneous action of individual impulse, for where all is system there will be mental and spiritual death.

Fear is in almost all cases a wretched instrument of government, and ought in particular never to be employed against any order of men who have the smallest pretensions to independency.

Let us teach ourselves and others that politics should be an expression of a desire to contribute to the happiness of the community rather than of a need to cheat or rape the community.

I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.

In England we have come to rely upon a comfortable time lag of fifty years or a century intervening between the perception that something ought to be done and a serious attempt to do it.

It's nice to elect the right people, but that isn't the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it politically profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.

Large organizations cannot be versatile. A large organization is effective through its mass rather than through its agility. Fleas can jump many times their own height, but not an elephant.

Guide the people by law, subdue them by punishment; they may shun crime, but will be void of shame. Guide them by example, subdue them by courtesy; they will learn shame, and come to be good.

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

The smaller the unit of government and the more restricted the functions assigned government, the less likely it is that its actions will reflect special interests rather than the general interest.

Hereby it is manifest, that during the time men live without a common Power to keep them all in awe, they are in that conditions called Warre; and such a warre, as is of every man, against every man.

Administration is the most obvious part of government; it is government in action; it is the executive, the operative, the most visible side of government, and is of course as old as government itself.

In effect, to follow, not to force the public inclination; to give a direction, a form, a technical dress, and a specific sanction, to the general sense of the community, is the true end of legislature.

The object of government is the welfare of the people. The material progress and prosperity of a nation are desirable chiefly so long as they lead to the moral and material welfare of all good citizens.

If they have real grievances redress them, if possible; or acknowledge the justice of them, and your inability to do it at the moment. If they have not, employ the force of government against them at once.

Although humans are not irrational, they often need help to make more accurate judgements and better decisions. [...] [They] also need protection from others who deliberately exploit their weaknesses [...].

At the Crossroads.The effective execution of a Plan is what counts and not mere planning on paper; it is not what we put on our plate or even what we eat that provides nourishment and growth, but what we digest.

Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.

For legislators make the citizens good by forming habits in them, and this is the wish of every legislator, and those who do not effect it miss their mark, and it is in this that a good constitution differs from a bad one.

The history of institutions is often a history of deception and illusions; for their virtue depends on the ideas that produce and on the spirit that preserves them, and the form may remain unaltered when the substance has passed away.

The mechanism by which the interaction of democratic decisions and their implementation by the experts often produces results which nobody has desired is a subject which would deserve much more careful attention than it usually receives.

The regime which is destroyed by a revolution is almost always an improvement on its immediate predecessor, and experience teaches that the most critical moment for bad governments is the one which witnesses their first steps toward reform.

Self-government means continuous effort to be independent of government control, whether it is foreign government or whether it is national. Swaraj government will be a sorry affair if people look up for the regulation of every detail of life.

The existence of a free market does not of course eliminate the need for government. On the contrary, government is essential both as a forum for determining the 'rule of the game' and as an umpire to interpret and enforce the rules decided on.

The more prohibitions that are imposed on people, The poorer the people become. The more laws and regulations that exist, The more thieves and brigands appear. The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

I have always gone about this business on the basis that one cannot have a partnership unless there is equity among partners. Equity, of course, is historically a British concept, but I think that it is one that we bring to the [European] Community.

We cannot afford merely to sit down and deplore the evils of city life as inevitable, when cities are constantly growing, both absolutely and relatively. We must set ourselves vigorously about the task of improving them; and this task is now well begun.

Circumstances (which with some gentlemen pass for nothing) give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing colour, and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind.

I suggest that, if India is to evolve along nonviolent lines, it will have to decentralize many things. Centralization cannot be sustained and defended without adequate force . . .Centralization as a system is inconsistent with non-violent structure of society.

No matter how deeply wedded one may be to the free enterprise system (and I, for one, am wedded for life), one has to accept the need for positive government; one has to consider government action on a sizable scale as desirable rather than as a necessary evil.

Do what nature now requires. Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato's Republic: but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event to be no small matter.

It is only through multilateral institutions that States can hold each other to account. And that makes it very important to organize those institutions in a fair and democratic way, giving the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong.

My Lords, to obtain empire is common; to govern it well has been rare indeed. To chastise the guilt of those who have been instruments of imperial sway over other nations by the high superintending justice of the sovereign state has not many striking examples among any people.

The object of presenting medals, stars, and ribbons is to give pride and pleasure to those who have deserved them. At the same time a distinction is something which everybody does not possess. If all have it it is of less value ... A medal glitters, but it also casts a shadow.

Smith had no illusion that this would be easy to do, nor did he suffer from the delusion that such an exercise would, in any sense, be perfect. But he did have the conviction that the exercise could still be very useful, and the best should not be made into an enemy of the good.

The Government simply cannot make up their minds, or they cannot get the Prime Minister [Stanley Baldwin] to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.

Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.

One of the many reasons for the bewildering and tragic character of human existence is the fact that social organization is at once necessary and fatal. Men are forever creating such organizations for their own convenience and forever finding themselves the victims of their home-made monsters.

The real question of government versus private enterprise is argued on too philosophical and abstract a basis. Theoretically, planning may be good. But nobody has ever figured out the cause of government stupidity — and until they do (and find the cure), all ideal plans will fall into quicksand.

There are 14 or 15 million Americans who have the resources to have representatives in Washington to protect their interests, and that the interests of the great mass of the other people — the 150 or 160 million — is the responsibility of the president of the United States, and I propose to fulfill it.

I have been on twenty public company corporate boards, not counting any Berkshire subsidiaries. ... The independent directors, in many cases, are the least independent. ... If the income you receive as a corporate director ... is an important part of your income ... how in the world is that independent?

In Africa, you often see that the difference between a village where everybody eats and a village where people starve is government. One has a functioning government, and the other does not. Which is why it bothers me when I hear people say that government is the enemy. They don't understand its fundamental role.

... the fight against suffering must be considered a duty, while the right to care for the happiness of others must be considered a privilege confined to the close circle of their friends. ... Pain, suffering, injustice, and their prevention, these are the eternal problems of public morals, the 'agenda' of public policy ...

Terrorism thrives on administrative violence and injustice; that is the only atmosphere in which it can thrive and grow. It sometimes follows the example of indiscriminate violence from above; it sometimes, though very rarely, sets it from below. But the power above which follows the example from below is on the way to committing suicide.

An ardent affection for the human race makes enthusiastic characters eager to produce alteration in laws and governments prematurely. To render them useful and permanent, they must be the growth of each particular soil, and the gradual fruit of the ripening understanding of the nation, matured by time, not forced by an unnatural fermentation.

All democracies, especially in developing countries that have considerable diversities and carry the burden of developmental imbalances, have had to grapple with one paramount challenge and that is : how to harmonies’ the legitimate self – assertion of communities that suffered deprivation and dis-empowerment in the past with imperatives of good governance.

Politics is a game of compromise.

Trust is established by dialogue.

The best is the enemy of the good.

Never confuse movement with action.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

You can never plan the future by the past.

I have only an office here, and no opinion.

The government in Washington belongs to you.

Law can only be applied to foreseeable cases.

Policy and morals concur in repressing pillage.

He who has his thumb on the purse has the power.

India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States.

Much to cast down, much to build, much to restore.

... scandals are only increased by hushing them up.

It is better to have a bad method than to have none.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Management has authority only as long as it performs.

In practical administration, experience is everything.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

There are so many laws that no one is safe from hanging.

Yield, ye arms, to the toga; to civic praise, ye laurels.

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

Nothing is more frightful than to see ignorance in action.

In dictatorships there is no... self-correcting mechanism.

What is the government? nothing, unless supported by opinion.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.

Honorable things, not secretive things, are sought by good men.

Extra judicial killings are not acceptable in a society of law.

No rules, however wise, are a substitute for affection and tact.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Man exists for his own sake and not to add a laborer to the state.

The object of Parliament is to substitute argument for fisticuffs.

No one ever made a decision because of a number. They need a story.

If you make 10,000 regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

The hand of the aggressor is stayed by strength — and strength alone.

Sooner you come down to reality the sooner you will solve the problem.

The maxim Nothing avails but perfection may be spelt shorter: Paralysis.

Those who are humane achieve glory. Those who are inhumane suffer disgrace.

If you open a window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.

To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

It is a familiar and significant saying that a problem well-put is half-solved.

It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.

and where men build on false grounds, the more they build, the greater is the ruine:

You cannot change the world in a day...if you want to change, start from your village.

Balancing the budget is like protecting your virtue , you have to learn how to say no.

The only people who don't want to disclose the truth are people with something to hide.

You ask which form of government is the best? Whichever teaches us to govern ourselves.

The reason that the invisible hand often seems invisible is that it is often not there.

We don’t need any more promises. We need to start keeping the promises we already made.

For he that hath strength enough to protect all, wants not sufficiency to oppresse all.

Ideally a just constitution would be a just procedure arranged to insure a just outcome.

No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.

The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people.

II. The tax which each individual is bound to pay ought to be certain, and not arbitrary.

Society has always to demand a little more from human beings than it will get in practice.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

The social insecurity of the worker is the real cause of their being a peril to the state.

The oldest and best known evil was ever more supportable than one that was new and untried.

There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.

If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.

Secrecy, censorship, dishonesty, and blocking of communication threaten all the basic needs.

The courts are no longer cathedrals. They are...casinos where the throw of the dice matters.

Democracy will never be supplanted by a republic of experts – and that is a very good thing.

Welfare's purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.

To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of His purpose.

Taxes are an evil—a necessary evil, but still an evil, and the fewer of them we have the better.

There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from nation to nation.

The state is made for man, not man for the state. And in this respect science resembles the state.

But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression.

You can do a lot with diplomacy, but with diplomacy backed up by force you can get a lot more done.

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.

Religion should not be allowed to come into Politics….Religion is merely a matter between man and God.

The law is the last result of human wisdom acting upon human experience for the benefit of the public.

What is prudence in the conduct of every private family, can scarce be folly in that of a great kingdom.

The merits of democracy are negative: it does not insure good government, but it prevents certain evils.

But still anger ought be far from us, for nothing is able to be done rightly nor judiciously with anger.

Nothing can be settled in isolation. Every use of our resources is at the expense of an alternative use.

The man fitted for affairs and authority never considers individuals, but things and their consequences.

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.

It was not enough that India should get Swaraj. It was more important in whose hands the Swaraj would be.

Is it surprising that prisons resemble factories, schools, barracks, hospitals, which all resemble prisons?

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now.

Politics, when it is an art and a service, not an exploitation, is about acting for an ideal through realities.

But he understood from hard-earned experience that true security comes through making peace with your neighbors.

Let us be dissatisfied until America will no longer have a high blood pressure of creeds and an anemia of deeds.

I have given you the power of choice, and you only alternate Between futile speculation and unconsidered action.

Punishment is the last and least effective instrument in the hands of the legislator for the prevention of crime.

Most governments take advantage of their scientists and listen to them. They don't undermine them and attack them.

The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural date is often pernicious and always useless.

All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and degrades those over whom it is exercised.

Few things can help an individual more than to place responsibility on him, and to let him know that you trust him.

The gravity of the time is such that every new avenue of peace, no matter how dimly discernible, should be explored.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining — by filling three basic gaps in our anti-recession protection.

The government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatever.

We believe in the principle that governments are properly established only when it is with the consent of the governed.

If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick.

The good particular men may do separately, in relieving the sick, is small, compared with what they may do collectively.

To ask how things are going and whether they can be improved is a constant and inescapable part of the pursuit of justice.

When the Great Dao (Tao, perfect order) prevails, the world is like a Commonwealth State shared by all, not a dictatorship.

Understanding the spirit of our institutions to aim at the elevation of men, I am opposed to whatever tends to degrade them.

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

The more is given the less the people will work for themselves, and the less they work the more their poverty will increase.

It is a common mistake in going to war to begin at the wrong end, to act first, and wait for disaster to discuss the matter.

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Poor people always pay back their loans. It's us, the creators of institutions and rules, who keep creating trouble for them.

The most difficult art is not in the choice of men, but in giving to the men chosen the highest service of which they are capable.

The CPSU again demonstrates that the most important aspect of self-criticism is to practically and effectively correct one's errors.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

So, our honest politicians and our honorable corporation heads owe it to their reputations to bring their activities out into the open.

If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.

There is no man so good, who, were he to submit all his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.

Village reform is not merely cleaning the roads, constructing schools and worshipping monasteries. It is not mere celebration of festivals.

In the domain of political economy the abstract doctrines of science leave me perfectly cold, my only standard of judgment being experience.

Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.

I, however, place economy among the first and most important republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared.

Hereditary succession to the magistracy is absurd, as it tends to make a property of it; it is incompatible with the sovereignty of the people.

In judging policies we should consider the results that have been achieved through them rather than the means by which they have been executed.

Instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.

Anything can happen someday, even that an act conforming to honour and honesty can end up, at the end of the line, as a good political decision.

The first duty of a state is to see that every child born therein shall be well housed, clothed, fed, and educated, till it attains years of discretion.

Tell me what kind of man governs a People, you tell me, with much exactness, what the net sum-total of social worth in that People has for some time been.

Treat people with respect, whoever they are, and expect your governments to treat everybody with respect. And if you do that, then you’re going to be okay.

Let the punishments of criminals be useful. A hanged man is good for nothing; a man condemned to public works still serves the country, and is a living lesson.

A nation's hope of lasting peace cannot be firmly based upon any race in armaments but rather upon just relations and honest understanding with all other nations.

It is a testament to our naïveté about culture that we think that we can change it by simply declaring new values. Such declarations usually produce only cynicism.

Societies held together by fear and repression may offer the illusion of stability for a time, but they are built upon fault lines that will eventually tear asunder.

The greatest problem for the human race, to the solution of which Nature drives man, is the achievement of a universal civic society which administers law among men.

There ought to be system of manners in every nation which a well-formed mind would be disposed to relish. To make us love our country, our country ought to be lovely.

I think the two things most opposed to good counsel are haste and passion; haste usually goes hand in hand with folly, passion with coarseness and narrowness of mind.

What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victims.

More than ever before in human history, we share a common destiny. We can master it only if we face it together. And that, my friends, is why we have the United Nations.

Perhaps the biggest problem before Indian Corporates is that of the concept of ‘corporate throne’. If the company is not doing well, the old guard must make way for new.

What experience and history teach is this — that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been, and ever will be, pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.

The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to its close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observation of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.

There is a divergence between private and social accounting that the market fails to register. One essential task of law and government is to institute the necessary conditions.

The President ... may err ... Congress may decide amiss ... But if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent or bad men, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.

No government is perfect. One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

Things have their root and their branches. Affairs have their end and their beginning. To know what is first and what is last will lead near to what is taught in the Great Learning.

Some people regard private enterprise as a predatory tiger to be shot. Others look on it as a cow they can milk. Not enough people see it as a healthy horse, pulling a sturdy wagon.

Man is not the creature and product of Mechanism; but, in a far truer sense, its creator and producer: it is the noble People that makes the noble Government; rather than conversely.

While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.

All laws which can be broken without any injury to another, are counted but a laughing-stock, and are so far from bridling the desires and lusts of men, that on the contrary they stimulate them.

I sincerely wish that every member of Congress could visit the displaced person's camp in Germany and Austria and see just what is happening to 500,000 human beings through no fault of their own.

The essence of totalitarian government, and perhaps the nature of every bureaucracy, is to make functionaries and mere cogs in the administrative machinery out of men, and thus to dehumanise them.

Priestley was the first (unless it was Beccaria) who taught my lips to pronounce this sacred truth — that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation.

They constantly try to escape From the darkness outside and within By dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good. But the man that is shall shadow The man that pretends to be.

The only government that I recognize—and it matters not how few are at the head of it, or how small its army — is that power that establishes justice in the land, never that which establishes injustice.

It is always important in matters of high politics to know what you do not know. Those who think they know, but are mistaken, and act upon their mistakes, are the most dangerous people to have in charge.

Peace ought to be the result of a system well considered, founded on the true interests of the different countries, honorable to each, and ought not to be either a capitulation or the result of a threat.

Let our law-givers then make haste before it is too late to set apart this surpassingly glorious region for the recreation and well-being of humanity, and all the world will rise up and call them blessed.

What does it mean when we see a committee set up to make a supposedly impartial review of a situation, and then discover that the committee is affiliated with the very industry whose profits are at stake?

All work undertaken should be useful — not just for a day, or a year, but useful in the sense that it affords permanent improvement in living conditions or that it creates future new wealth for the Nation.

So far as I am concerned and the government I lead is concerned, I want to make it perfectly clear that communal forces will not be given the slightest quarter to sow seeds of dissensions among the people.

14. A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.

We are aware of all the inconveniences of prison, and that it is dangerous when it is not useless. And yet one cannot 'see' how to replace it. It is the detestable solution, which one seems unable to do without.

So the real problem in this whole question relates to utilization of national resources for productive and social welfare against the burden of defense expenditure which a country can bear at any particular time.

Science is international but its success is based on institutions, which are owned by nations. If therefore, we wish to promote culture we have to combine and to organize institutions with our own power and means.

Let us not despair but act. Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past — let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

The great end of all human industry, is the attainment of happiness. For this were arts invented, sciences cultivated, laws ordained, and societies modelled, by the most profound wisdom of patriots and legislators.

The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society – from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.

I hope we once again have reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

The theory of democratic government is not that the will of the people is always right, but rather that normal human beings of average intelligence will, if given a chance, learn the right and best course by bitter experience.

The aged are cared for until death; adults are employed in jobs that make full use of their abilities; and children are nourished, educated, and fostered;...orphans... the disabled and the diseased are all well taken care of....

Welfare programs as instruments of manipulation ultimately serve the end of conquest. They act as an anesthetic, distracting the oppressed from the true causes of their problems and from the concrete solutions of these problems.

We have got used to relying on precedents of England to such an extent that it seems almost sacrilegious to have a different interpretation even if our conditions and circumstances might seem to require a different interpretation.

In our search for a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem, both in its external and internal dimensions, we shall not traverse solely on the beaten track of the past. Mindsets will have to be altered and historical baggage jettisoned.

Successful entrepreneurship is ultimately a matter of flair. But there is also a fund of practical knowledge to be acquired and, of course, the right legal and financial framework has to be provided for productive enterprise to develop.

We have a given problem to solve. If we undertake the solution, there is, of course, always danger that we may not solve it aright; but to refuse to undertake the solution simply renders it certain that we cannot possibly solve it aright.

For me the only training in Swaraj we need is the ability to defend ourselves against the whole world and to live our natural life in perfect freedom, even though it may be full of defects. Good government is no substitute for self-government.

If a superior alien civilisation sent us a text message saying, 'We'll arrive in a few decades', would we just reply, 'OK, call us when you get here, we'll leave the lights on'? Probably not, but this is more or less what has happened with AI.

I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.

The point of having nuclear weapons is to deter a war of any kind. They have succeeded in doing so for the past 37 years. To be an effective deterrent a potential aggressor must believe that under certain circumstances such weapons will be used.

The higher people get, the more evolved and psychologically healthy people get, the more will enlightened management policy be necessary in order to survive in competition and the more handicapped will be an enterprise with an authoritarian policy.

I believe that the United States as a government, if it is going to be true to its own founding documents, does have the job of working toward that time when there is no discrimination made on such inconsequential reason as race, color, or religion.

Trust is the glue that holds everything together. It creates the environment in which all of the other elements — win-win stewardship agreements, self-directing individuals and teams, aligned structures and systems, and accountability — can flourish.

A scourge is not on a human scale, and so people say it isn't real; it's a bad dream that will pass. But is doesn't always pass, and, from bad dream to bad dream, it's the humans who pass, and the humanists first, because they didn't heed the warnings.

The natural resource curse is not fate; it is choice. The exploitation of natural resources is an important part of globalization today, and in some ways the failures of the resource-rich developing countries are emblematic of globalization's failures.

Systems thinking is a framework for seeing interrelationships rather than things, for seeing patterns rather than static snapshots. It is a set of general principles spanning fields as diverse as physical and social sciences, engineering and management

Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations... In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.

But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task, if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us, that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again.

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.

How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Our own felicity we make or find. With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy.

The interest of the dealers, however, in any particular branch of trade or manufactures, is always in some respects different from, and even opposite to, that of the public. To widen the market and to narrow the competition, is always the interest of the dealers.

If a king is energetic, his subjects will be equally energetic. If he is reckless, they will not only be reckless likewise, but also eat into his works. Besides, a reckless king will easily fall into the hands of his enemies. Hence the king shall ever be wakeful.

Let us not be afraid to help each other — let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and Senators and Congressmen and Government officials but the voters of this country.

We have pushed taxation of wealth to a point in Great Britain where in many cases the yield would be greater if the rate were less. The idea that prosperity can be wooed by chasing millionaires is one of the most common and most foolish of modern popular delusions.

The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Whenever the general disposition of the people is such, that each individual regards those only of his interests which are selfish, and does not dwell on, or concern himself for, his share of the general interest, in such a state of things, good government is impossible.

And hereby it comes to passe, that Intemperance, is naturally punished with Diseases; Rashness, with Mischance; Injustice; with Violence of Enemies; Pride, with Ruine; Cowardice, with Oppression; Negligent government of Princes, with Rebellion; and Rebellion with Slaughter.

Milk is the only commodity which has to be collected twice a day, every day of the year. Thus, cooperatives are the only logical system for the dairy industry. About 85% of the industry in the US, Denmark and Australia is run by cooperatives. No other system will work for milk.

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage. That is a commonplace truth, but one to which my studies are always bringing me back. It is the central point in my conception. I see it at the end of all my reflections.

It is far easier and safer to prevent illness by the observance of the laws of health than to set about curing the illness which has been brought on by our own ignorance and carelessness. Hence it is the duty of all thoughtful men to understand aright the laws of health (Introduction)

They all attributed the peaceful dominion of religion in their country mainly to the separation of church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in America I did not meet a single individual, of the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point.

Power is fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And powerlessness reaffirmed not just by the helplessness of those who have lost, but also by the gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained.

Government protection should be thrown around every wild grove and forest on the mountains, as it is around every private orchard, and the trees in public parks. To say nothing of their value as fountains of timber, they are worth infinitely more than all the gardens and parks of towns.

Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are always the masters. When the regulation, therefore, is in favor of the workmen, it is always just and equitable; but it is sometimes otherwise when in favor of the masters.

Many unfortunate human situations unfold [...] where people who face very bad options take desperate gambles, accepting a high probability of making things worse in exchange for a small hope of avoiding a large loss. Risk taking of this kind often turns manageable failures into disasters.

I have often thought that nothing would do more extensive good at small expense than the establishment of a small circulating library in every county, to consist of a few well-chosen books, to be lent to the people of the country under regulations as would secure their safe return in due time.

Corrupt influence, which is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; which loads us, more than millions of debt; which takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.

Is the democratic form of government successful in all parts of India? But the solution to the problems of democracy is more democracy. There can be no democracy in India unless you erect a plurality of democratic structures to underpin democracy, like the village cooperative which is a people’s institution.

It is not a correct deduction from the Principles of Economics that enlightened self-interest always operates in the public interest. Nor is it true that self-interest generally is enlightened; more often individuals acting separately to promote their own ends are too ignorant or too weak to attain even these.

To have a good crop we must weed the field, otherwise the rice will grow badly in spite of careful ploughing and abundant manuring. To be successful in increasing production and practicing thrift, we must also weed the field, that is root out embezzlement, waste and bureaucracy. Otherwise they will harm our work.

It helps to set ambitious goals and commit to meeting them, the way countries around the world did with the 2015 Paris Agreement. It’s easy to mock international agreements, but they’re part of how progress happens: If you like having an ozone layer, you can thank an international agreement called the Montreal Protocol.

A State which is incompetent to satisfy different races condemns itself; a State which labours to neutralise, to absorb, or to expel them, destroys its own vitality; a State which does not include them is destitute of the chief basis of self-government. The theory of nationality, therefore, is a retrograde step in history.

Combinations in industry are the result of an imperative economic law which cannot be repealed by political legislation. The effort at prohibiting all combination has substantially failed. The way out lies, not in attempting to prevent such combinations, but in completely controlling them in the interest of the public welfare.

Thus the first objective of state economic policy is to ensure competition. This needs to be taken into account in the process of privatization or reorganizing state enterprises, as well as in the laws allowing the formation of firms, cooperatives, and partnerships. The government must take actions to minimize the barriers to entry.

Democracy will win -- because a government’s legitimacy can only come from citizens; because in this age of information and empowerment, people want more control over their lives, not less; and because, more than any other form of government ever devised, only democracy, rooted in the sanctity of the individual, can deliver real progress.

Though the principles of the banking trade may appear somewhat abstruse, the practice is capable of being reduced to strict rules. To depart upon any occasion from these rules, in consequence of some flattering speculation of extraordinary gain, is almost always extremely dangerous, and frequently fatal to the banking company which attempts it.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the... life of most humans ran... within three ancient frames: the nuclear family.., extended family and... local intimate community. ...The family was... the welfare.., health.., education system.., construction industry.., pension fund.., insurance company.., radio.., television.., newspapers.., bank and... police.