Tom Harkin Quotes

Our government should not make promises we cannot keep. And we must keep the promises we have already made.

Trust gives you the permission to give people direction, get everyone aligned, and give them the energy to go get the job done. Trust enables you to execute with excellence and produce extraordinary results. As you execute with excellence and deliver on your commitments, trust becomes easier to inspire, creating a flywheel of performance.

My approach is always to try to be straight with people, especially about what my party can achieve.

Never promise more than you can perform.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

The American people voted to restore integrity and honesty in Washington, D.C., and the Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open and most ethical Congress in history.

I say what I mean and do what I say.

In the end we are not going to be judged by how smart we are or by how much we care, but by what we have done.

I will make the further pledge now that if I find that I cannot keep my pledges I will resign.

Trust is that there should be no difference between what you do and say, and what you think. /

Trust is leveling with people before the election about what you're going to do after the election.

Leadership is not what you said on the Senate floor. It’s not what you’ve said. It’s what you’ve done.

My record speaks for itself.

A politician and a government should be judged by one way only: on the record of what you do or did, not on what you say.

I think I've shown that all the promises I made that I was going to win races were real and not bull.

Results matter! They matter to your credibility.

What I'm trying to do is deliver results, not promises; results, not vision; results, not concepts. The world is cynical about IBM's promises.

There are actually very few US politicians who have integrity and vision.

One thing I have always promised is to be open and transparent and to treat employees and partners with respect and integrity.

You shouldn't have one opinion when you're running and another when you're president.

We are all equal on this floor, and a senator must keep his word.

If the employees fundamentally trust the C.E.O., then communications will be vastly more efficient than if they don't. Telling things as they are is a critical part of building this trust.

People shouldn't be interested in me. They should be interested in me if I'm not doing what I promise.

I find that when you open the door toward openness and transparency, a lot of people will follow you through.

In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.