Michelle Obama Quotes

I don't aspire to have high approval ratings. I aspire, in light of my two predecessors, to be the most honest governor I can be. I'd rather focus on honesty than popularity.

There can be no faith in government if our highest offices are excused from scrutiny - they should be setting the example of transparency.

The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.

We shouldn't accept mediocrity as the best a politician can do.

We need more of the Office Desk and less of the Show Window in politics. Let men in office substitute the midnight oil for the limelight.

There is a tendency by a lot of officials to hide behind the king. And it's about time that officials take their responsibility and are responsible in front of the people.

The young people I know judge leaders by their deeds and abhor hypocrisy. Inconsistency and point-scoring do not win respect. It's not easy to be engaged in political debate when it is reduced to performers trying to outdo each other. Actions from leaders must mirror the values they claim to espouse.

I've seen firsthand that being president doesn't change who you are. It reveals who you are.

In politics there are no bad questions; there are only bad answers.

History shows that more democracy is not a magic pill that will make institutionalized corruption will go away.

The public, by and large, trusts its leaders not only to tell the truth, but to get the job done. When they don’t get the job done, they get punished, and when they don’t get the job done and it comes out that they lied, they’re in really serious trouble. This is what happened to [Lyndon] Johnson and it’s what happened to [George W,] Bush. If you’re going to tell a lie, make sure the policy works out.

What makes a politician accountable is not that there are millions of people who vote, but that there are procedures of government that force him to account for himself.

No prime minister, no government can expect to be unanswerable or unchallenged.

Transparency and accountability must be restored in politics.

The voters of Colorado deserve honest, straight-talking elected officials.

What I've tried to do in politics is two very simple things: tell the truth and do what I said I would do.

Scandals are the fertilizer of Western democracy.

You are what you do, not what you say.

The American way is to criticize and debate openly, not to accept unthinkingly the doings of government officials of this or any other country.

Ethiopia did not have the same problem [of corruption]. African leaders looked at us with envy.

We must maintain the integrity of the White House, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the White House.

If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men.

I think people's soul - I think you can kind of see it - there's what they say and there's what they do.

The phrase public office is a public trust, has of last become common property.

An actor knows two important things - to be honest in what he is doing and to be in touch with the audience. That's not bad advice for a politician either.