Bill Foster Quotes

If I, taking care of everyone's interests, also take care of my own, you can't talk about a conflict of interest.

As Members of Congress, we should not be using public office for private gain.

I have always served the public to the best of my ability. Why? Because, like every other man, it is to my interest to do so.

To be interested in the public good we must be disinterested, that is, not interested in goods in which our personal selves are wrapped up.

It worries me about what happens if people in government are looking for that next job: 'Yeah I'm working now, not as much money as I could be making, but when I leave here, that's where I'm headed.' That ultimately infects whatever it is that they're doing.

Those who hold positions and receive official stipends are incapable of the utmost in loyalty and patriotic service.

We must take man as we find him, and if we expect him to serve the public we must interest his passions in doing so.

Not everybody goes to government to serve themselves and not their country.

I never engaged in public affairs for my own interest, pleasure, envy, jealousy, avarice or ambition, or even the desire of fame

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?'

I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.

Every forward is selfish, and any forward who tells you he is not selfish is a liar.

I get the feeling a lot of politicians are there to help themselves financially, first and foremost. I don't really need to do that, and I thought if I could do something for sport in Scotland, that would be really fulfilling.

Critics might contend that putting former private-sector CEOs in the president's Cabinet places the fox in the henhouse. But it's unlikely such executives would expose themselves to the headaches if they weren't genuinely motivated by the call to service.

Private passions tire and exhaust themselves, public ones never.

How can you regret helping a suffering patient?

That's the one thing I probably don't like about politics - the focus on the individual. To me, it's more important to get it done, whether I get the credit for it or not.

Is it possible to covet a much longer life for one's self and be as devoted to the well-being of the next generation? It's a long argument.

I'm really interested in the difference between selfishness and generosity. It confuses me to no end because sometimes it all just feels like pure indulgence on my part.

Have I given any symptoms of an avaricious disposition? Have I obtained any grants from the crown since I have been placed at the head of the treasury? Has my conduct been different from that which others in the same station would have followed?

I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.

A lot of people like a lot of money. They shouldn't go into politics.

A lot of people, some of them close to me as well, have said that I sacrificed myself by doing what I did in bringing Terry on board. I didn't see it that way.

No man should be in public office who can't make more money in private life.

The moralist is the person who tells people that they ought to be unselfish, when they still feel like egos, and his efforts are always and invariably futile.