George Tenet Quotes

I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their job.

And I'm afraid, in this day and age, trust, which I count so, you know, I love loyalty. I love trust.

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.

I've always told the truth. I've often been wrong - but I've never knowingly lied. Not in public life. Because I don't see the need to.

There are divers men who make a great show of loyalty, and pretend to such discretion in the hidden things they hear, that at the end folk come to put faith in them.

The foundation stones for a balanced success are honesty, character, integrity, faith, love and loyalty.

Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.

Let me get you to understand I don't bully anybody. I stand up for what I believe in and I'm very honest and I always tell the truth. I'm not a liar, I'm not manipulative and I don't stab you in your back because I will stab you in your chest.

A life in politics is for people who know themselves and know where their own line is between loyalty and honesty.

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

You want to believe in leaders, really believe in leaders. You want what they are saying to be truthful, and you want to trust them.

There are two good rules which ought to be written on every heart - never to believe anything bad about anybody unless you positively know it to be true; never to tell even that unless you feel that it is absolutely necessary, and that God is listening.

I've tried to do away with lying in my life in the last few years, but it's hard.

My instructions were, "You don't lie. You put your own interpretation on the truth.

When I became press secretary my father sent me a telegram and said, "Tell the truth if you can and if you can't tell the truth, don't tell a lie." That became very difficult to do.

If you have any fault to find with anyone, tell him, not others, of what you complain; there is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to be one thing before a man's face and another behind his back.

I just try to be honest, because I think that's part of my job description as a writer.

I do not think that I am a person who cannot be trusted.

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.

I don't keep secrets because I'm no good at them!

I refuse to say things behind people's backs.

It is my conviction that secrets are more costly in the long run than honesty.

You should not do an autobiography if you want to tell the truth. There are a lot of things I know about people. If I can't say something good about a person, I don't want to say anything. And since I don't want to say anything bad, I won't write a book.

Truth is certainly a branch of morality and a very important one to society.

When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the President and unable to comment. But I promised reporters and the public that I would someday tell the whole story of what I knew.