Jonathan Yardley Quotes

No public man can be just a little crooked.

Politics is dirty, and I don't like to talk about dirty things... My conscience is clear.

Unfortunately, in American politics there are no standards for shame.

In any profession, there's a sleazy side and an honorable side.

People do not want politicians they know to be corrupt.

An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought.

I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.

Certainly he [Richard M. Nixon] is not of the generation that regards honesty as the best policy.

If we insist that public life be reserved for those whose personal history is pristine, we are not going to get paragons of virtue running our affairs. We will get the very rich, who will contract out the messy things in life: the very dull, who have nothing to hide and nothing to show: and the very devious, expert at covering their tracks and ambitious enough to risk their discovery.

The real scandal in Washington is not what is against the law. It is what is not against the law.

In public life as in private life, a man of the very highest repute will occasionally go wrong..

It is curious that we pay statesmen for what they say, not for what they do; and judge of them from what they do, not from what they say. Hence they have one code of maxims for profession and another for practice, and make up their consciences as the Neapolitans do their beds, with one set of furniture for show and another for use.

We have souls. Sure we do. Otherwise we'd do bad things all the time. You know, like politicians.

When you're offstage, that's the footprint. That's the man God's gonna judge.

I thank God that I left office the same way I came in: with integrity.

Both politicians and journalists face situations which strain their honesty and humanity. My opinion is that politicians on the average stand up somewhat better than journalists.

This idea that you can't be an honest man and a Washington politician is a myth, a crock made up by sellouts and careerist hacks who don't stand for anything and are impatient with people who do. It's possible to do this job with honor and dignity.

Personally I don't think solving corruption is such a big problem.

Well, purity - there's no purity in politics.

Live in such a way that you would not be ashamed to sell your parrot to the town gossip.

In Minnesota, we hold our leaders to a higher standard. We demand that the men and women we send to Washington stand above reproach and steer clear of the web of corruption, kickbacks and special favors.

Those who fight corruption should be clean themselves.

Every leader has the responsibility to hone his or her integrity. Many times, there are integrity traps that have a tendency to catch well-meaning leaders off guard.

The notion of our leaders as patrician ascetics of unassailable virtue is risible.

Anything done [in politics] is all right unless you get caught.