Patty Judge Quotes

When a citizen gives his suffrage to a man of known immorality he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor; he betrays the interest of his country.

I just want people to know that whatever decisions are made on any issue, I'll make them according to what I believe is in the public interest and my own conscience.

My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a democratic framework.

Ethics in government has always been important to me.

When I have to do what I think is right for Montana, I do it.

The senator has got to understand if he's going to have - he can't have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low road.

Let no guilty man escape, if it can be avoided. No personal considerations should stand in the way of performing a public duty.

Concern for individual well-being is for private citizens .... Princes, who enjoy public possessions, should be concerned with public good.

When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property.

If experience teaches us anything it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

Those who do not serve the public interest should not hold a public license.

He must be one that respects the Cause, and not the persons in all his Administrations…. If his Affections Oversway his judgment at any time, they will be a crooked Bias, that will turn him out of the way, and that shall be justice in one man's case, which will not be so in another. He must be one whom neither Flattery nor Bribery may be able to remove out of his way. Finally, he must be one who prefers the publick Benefit above all private and separate Interests whatsoever

We may add as a last duty of the sovereign, which follows from the first and includes all the others, that although his power seems to place him above the law, no one having the right to call him to account, nevertheless he should observe the laws as they may apply to him. And he is obliged to do this not only in order to set a good example to his subjects and make them love their duty, but because his sovereign power does not exempt him from his own duty, and his station requires him to prefer the general good of the state to his personal interests, and it is a glory for him to look upon the general good as his own.

We are here to serve our citizens and not our ambitions.

My retirement will make no difference in [the newspaper’s] cardinal principles, that it will always fight for progress and reform, never tolerate injustice or corruption, always fight demagogues of all parties, never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty.

A good subject makes it his rule to prefer the public welfare to everything else, bravely to sacrifice his fortune, and his private interests, and even his life, for the preservation of the state; and to employ all his abilities and his industry to advance the honor, and to procure the advantage of his native country.

If this is the vaunted superiority our Government and the purity of our elective institutions, I do not think we have so much to be proud of, and morality and religion are of little use if they cannot teach us to discern the difference between right and wrong.

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare - I have no use for him, either.

Leadership is not manifested by coercion, even against the resented. Greatness is not manifested by unlimited pragmatism, which places such a high premium on the end justifying any means and any methods.

The proper function of a government is to make it easy for the people to do good, and difficult for them to do evil.

The best citizens were supposed to desire honest men in office, men who would not take bribes, men who would appoint high-minded men as their subordinates, men who would look after the public interest, see that public charities were well supported.

I don't think I've ever met a public official that didn't think he was doing the right thing. I can't think of one.

We have a responsibility as elected officials to do good public policy in the best interest of all the people.

You have a person there in Senator McCain that has an integrity in him and will stand up for the political process.

I voted against this Indian bill, and my conscience yet tells me that I gave a good, honest vote, and one that I believe will not make me ashamed in the day of judgment.