Albert J. Nock Quotes

How many thousands pronounce boldly on the affairs of the public whom God nor men never qualified for such judgment?

Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk.

Good people can disagree - all you want is honesty, because you know, if I disagree, I'm willing to debate you on that, and then let the public decide what's good policy and bad policy.

Maybe politically it wasn't wise but when people have different view points I think the public has a right to hear it and the public has a right to make decisions based on those view points.

At public meetings avoid specific discussion of public policy.

Free and open communications is the best guarantee of democracy.

Misrepresentation of public Measures is easily overthrown, by representing public Measures truly; when they are honest, they ought to be publicly known, that they may be publicly commended, but if they are knavish or pernicious, they ought to be publicly exposed, in order to be publicly detested.

Criticism, any amount, we welcome it. Come, let's have a discussion - in Parliament, all the better.

I work in a public forum, and all I can do is say what I honestly feel.

A basic tenet of a healthy democracy is open dialogue and transparency.

The public character of every public servant is legitimate subject of discussion, and his fitness or unfitness for office may be fairly canvassed by any person.

I think it's appropriate in America for anyone to speak out and say what their reaction is to the president's State of the Union speech.

Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is doing a public service.

I think Thomas Jefferson would have said the more speech, the better.

Let us not be ashamed to speak what we shame not to think.

I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow; I want to invite criticism.

And if that's what the American people want, then that's what the policy should be, of course. But the idea that anything in the United States is too sensitive to discuss or too dangerous to discuss is really, I think, absurd.

My dream of politics all my life has been that it is the common business, that it is something we owe to each other to understand and discuss with absolute frankness.

We have a right to know and a duty to discover what you think of the great constitutional issues of our time.

All people have the duty and the right to participate in public debate.

Pubic business must be done. It will be done one way or another. If wise men refuse it, others will not. If honest men refuse it, others will not.

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity. In the final analysis, a democratic government represents the sum total of the courage and the integrity of its individuals. It cannot be better than they are.

Those who dare to speak out about major public events may not receive tangible benefits, but they receive the very considerable reward of high moral reputation among fellow Chinese as well as in the international community.

Public men are all amenable to the tribunal of the press in a free state. The greater, indeed, their trust, the more respectable are they.

My constituents want me to be outspoken - it's part of the reason they elected me - and the inevitable side effect of being outspoken is that, occasionally, you put your foot in your mouth.