Government Accountability Quotes

Americans can live with the fact that good people sometimes give their lives for this country, but what they can't take, what they can't live with is when their government is not square with them.

The American people deserve a blueprint for policymaking that is built upon the Constitution of the United States and the principles of fiscal discipline, limited government, accountability, and a strong national defense.

We have institutions, but they don’t work. We have laws, but they must be enforced.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced

Every nation has the government it deserves. Toute nation a le government qu'elle merite.

The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

Our Presidents should not be able to conduct secret operations which violate our principles, jeopardize our rights, and have not been subject to the checks and balances which normally keep policies in line

Every country has the government it deserves.

No substantial famine has ever occurred in a democratic country - no matter how poor.

If every nation gets the government it deserves, every generation writes the history which corresponds with its view of the world.

… in a republic, who is "the Country"? Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them. Who, then, is "the Country"? Is it the newspaper? is it the pulpit? Is it the school superintendent? Why, these are mere parts of the country, not the whole of it; they have not command, they have only their little share in the command. They are but one in a thousand; it is in the thousand that command is lodged; they must determine what is right and what is wrong; they must decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Who are the thousand--that is to say, who are "the Country"?

In a democracy, people usually get the kind of government they deserve, and they deserve what they get.

Why should freedom of speech and freedom of the press be allowed? Why should a government which is doing what it believes is right allow itself to be criticized? It would not allow opposition by lethal weapons. Ideas are much more fatal things than guns.

… no government, so called, can reasonably be trusted for a moment, or reasonably be supposed to have honest purposes in view, any longer than it depends wholly upon voluntary support

A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.

We" are not the government; the government is not "us." The government does not in any accurate sense "represent" the majority of the people

...the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

People get the government their behavior deserves. People deserve better than that.

Make but few laws but see them well observed when once made.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

Politics have no relation to morals.

It is said that every people has the Government it deserves. It is more to the point that every Government has the electorate it deserves; for the orator of the front bench can edify or debauch an ignorant electorate at will.

Good laws, if they are not obeyed, do not constitute good government.

The nation has placed its faith in the precept that all laws should be inspired by actual needs here on earth as a basic fact of national life.

If Voting Changed Anything, They’d Abolish It