Rory Stewart Quotes

We've got to trust the politicians with these decisions.

We don’t trust government, but we need government….Government didn’t land here from Mars. We elected them.

Dishonesty in government is the business of every citizen. It is not enough to do your own job. There's no particular virtue in that. Democracy isn't a gift. It's a responsibility.

I want to re-establish the people's trust in the office of president.

In a democracy, the one thing that cannot be done is to destroy its trust, its hope, its idealism.

If you believe in democracy, than you can't trash it by being cynical about the people who do democracy: the politicians.

We can restore that vital trust between politics and the people.

When all Americans believe that the people we elect deserve to be in power, that their conduct in office is worthy of respect, and that they can be held accountable for their decisions, our politics will finally be worthy of our great people.

Our democracy is predicated on the belief that our government should be accessible by the people. We cannot allow ourselves to give in to fear or shy away from interacting with the public.

I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people's trust in their government.

A lot of politicians say they want to get people out to vote; sometimes you can't totally believe they really want that.

Transparency is not about restoring trust in institutions. Transparency is the politics of managing mistrust.

America is a country ready to be taken, in fact, longing to be taken by political leaders ready to restore democracy and trust to the political process.

Good government is good politics.

Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?

The people's government has come to be less and less the people's business.

Politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.

Healthy skepticism is necessary to the continuation of our democracy. When it turns to paranoia, it becomes destructive. American history has alternated between the two .... A nation where cynicism toward government prevails cannot function effectively.

In this country the government responds to the people, not the other way around.

The basis of effective government is public confidence.

The essential democracy of our Nation and the safety of our people depend not upon the absence of power, but upon lodging it with those whom the people can change or continue at stated intervals through an honest and free system of elections

Especially among journalists, politics is not a pursuit that's held in high esteem. We tend to be cynical about it - but I actually believe in democracy.

Our form of government depends on a mutual bond of trust between the people and their government. But people have become cynical about their government.