Tan Cheng Bock Quotes

Our expectations of our leaders are too high—in what they can do to effect our day-to-day lives.

There is a power in public opinion in this country - and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers - which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens.

I believe that the will of the people is resolved by a strong leadership. Even in a democratic society, events depend on a strong leadership with a strong power of persuasion, and not on the opinion of the masses.

You elected government officials to make decisions and it's about time they started making good ones.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

Public officers are the trustees of the people.

The President represents everybody and he sets the moral tone of the country.

Very little is dependable in the politics of a going democracy except the people's conviction that one world-saver at a time is enough.

You cannot make elected officials … do what they will not do.

The President can set the cultural agenda.

There is something wrong with the way in which we make our decisions. The Government listen too much to the pollsters and the party managers. The trouble is that they are not even very good at politics, and they are entering too much into policy decisions. As a result, there is too much short-termism, too much reacting to events, and not enough shaping of events. We give the impression of being in office but not in power. Far too many important decisions are made for 36 hours' publicity.

Political authorities should lead the way and not lag behind [public opinion].

If I made decisions around here based on the election, I wouldn't be a very good senator.

It's clear that the true problems of our Nation are much deeper - deeper than gasoline lines of energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help. So, I decided to reach out and listen to the voices of America.

One of the things that you learn, having been in this [President's] office for four years, is the old adage of Abraham Lincoln's. That with public opinion there's nothing you can't do and without public opinion there's very little you can get done.

I think it's scary that that our elected officials aren't operating under the principles of human rights, under the principles that this government and this country was founded on.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

As president, you can't just say, 'I want this,' or, 'Do that.' A president has to lead the American people to where he wants to go, and the chief of staff needs to help him get it done.

The state must be the first to be organized and totally committed to serving the interests of the people. We must always be clear that the example is set at the top.

No leader, however strong, can succeed at anything of national importance or significance unless he has the support and cooperation of the people he is tasked to lead and sworn to serve.

I am the people's politician. If the day should ever come when the people can't save me, I'll know I'm finished.

The first lesson of politics or, at least, democracy is that it is a government by the people and for the people, isn't it? What makes the person a big leader or a big name is only what the person has done for the people.

We'll continue to build a nation that is trusted by its people.

The President must not be such a distant person.