Governance Quotes

“Do you know the song Violet Crowned Athens?” he asked. Yellow hair like hers was rare among the Greeks. Though some people say that Helen of Troy . . .”
― Yvonne Korshak, Pericles and Aspasia: A Story of Ancient Greece

“James Ed smiled. “We should start a cuddling movement. Cuddling would solve most of the world’s problems. I can just see our bumper stickers. Have you cuddled today?”
― Shafter Bailey, James Ed Hoskins and the One-Room Schoolhouse: The Unprosecuted Crime Against Children

“Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”
― Thomas Paine

“In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“No ideas will be rejected out of hand and all ideas will be considered.”
― Michael G. Kramer, The Full Circle for Mick

“The legislator should direct his attention above all to the education of youth; for the neglect of education does harm to the constitution. The citizen should be molded to suit the form of government under which he lives. For each government has a peculiar character which originally formed and which continues to preserve it. The character of democracy creates democracy, and the character of oligarchy creates oligarchy.”
― Aristotle

“We are in a prison of our own minds holding our own chains around us. We create our oligarchs and fight for their right to oppress us.”
― Heather Marsh, Binding Chaos

“No matter how an individual views Satan, whether they believe that he is a real character or that he is just the product of literary scholars and imaginations, no one can deny that each one of us has an aspect of the devil within us. By studying the character and nature of Satan, we learn about ourselves; and the more we know about ourselves, the better we can fight our own personal demons—metaphorical or otherwise—in order to create a better tomorrow”
― Nwaocha Ogechukwu

“العلاقة بين الحاكم والمحكوم تتقرر بطريقة خفية كما في الحب، ويمكن أن يقول إن أظفر الحكام بقلوب المحكومين هو أعظمهم احتراما لإنسانيتهم، وليس بالخبز وحده يحيا الإنسان!”
― نجيب محفوظ, السمان والخريف

“Your worst enemy is not the person in opposition to you. It is the person occupying the spot you would be fighting from and doing nothing.”
― Heather Marsh, Binding Chaos

“When we finally achieve the full right of participation in American life, what we make of it will depend upon our sense of cultural values, and our creative use of freedom, not upon our racial identification. I see no reason why the heritage of world culture—which represents a continuum—should be confused with the notion of race. Japan erected a highly efficient modern technology upon a religious culture which viewed the Emperor as a god. The Germany which produced Beethoven and Hegel and Mann turned its science and technology to the monstrous task of genocide; one hopes that when what are known as the “Negro” societies are in full possession of the world’s knowledge and in control of their destinies, they will bring to an end all those savageries which for centuries have been committed in the name of race. From what we are now witnessing in certain parts of the world today, however, there is no guarantee that simply being non-white offers any guarantee of this. The demands of state policy are apt to be more influential than morality. I would like to see a qualified Negro as President of the United States. But I suspect that even if this were today possible, the necessities of the office would shape his actions far more than his racial identity.”
― Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Act

“A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can no longer govern. He is destined to become as much a failure as his war.”
― Glenn Greenwald, A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency

“Leaders say "no" to corruption. Anyone playing a role in governance, and is not ready to do this is not a leader.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Ladder

“The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.”
― Thomas Jefferson, A Summary View of the Rights of British America

“We were all ready to die for the country but what we did not discover was we have to live for the country.”
― Jim Paredes

“Bill C-9 was supposed to be a budget bill, but it came with innumerable measures that had little or nothing to do with the nation's finances. It was, as critics put it, the advance of the Harper agenda by stealth, yet another abuse of the democratic process. The bill was a behemoth. It was 904 pages, with 23 separate sections and 2,208 individual clauses....

As a Reform MP, [Stephen Harper] .... said of one piece of legislation that 'the subject matter of the bill is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles.' The bill he referred to was 21 page long -- or 883 pages shorter than the one he was now putting before Parliament.”
― Lawrence Martin, Harperland: The Politics Of Control

“Laws continue to be enacted, and the regulatory environment has become more complex due to unacceptable conduct remediation. Consequently, entities continue to be compelled to demonstrate compliance with legal mandates through documented assurance assessments.”
― Robert E. Davis, Assuring IT Legal Compliance

“Potential stakeholders usually rely upon governance elements prior to investing their time, talent, and/or money.”
― Robert E. Davis, IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection

“Since knowledge and ideas are an important part of cultural heritage, social interaction and business transactions, they retain a special value for many societies. Logically, if the associated electronically formatted information is valued, preventive and detective measures are necessary to ensure minimum organizational impact from an IPR security breach.”
― Robert E. Davis, IT Auditing: Assuring Information Assets Protection

“All governments, even these precious “democracies,” derive all their power by force. Do something the government doesn’t want, like, say, cross the street against the light, refuse to submit to its authority, and it won’t be long before they’ll use some form of force, usually a weapon and the threat of death or injury, to compel you to comply.”
― S. Evan Townsend, Hammer of Thor

“A nation’s progress cannot be measured solely in economic terms. Growth that excludes dignity, justice, and equity is hollow and unstable. Sustainable development begins when policy places human well-being above political convenience.”
― Shivanshu K. Srivastava

“Systems fail when extraction exceeds renewal.”
― Kayambila Mpulamasaka

“The Constitution is not merely a legal document but a moral covenant between the state and its people. Its true strength lies not in text alone, but in faithful implementation. When constitutional values guide governance, justice ceases to be selective.”
― Shivanshu K. Srivastava

“The aspiration to security is thus misguided and certainly unachievable. As Foucault (2007) has remarked, security is not a state to be realised; it is always elusive, an absolute end that cannot be attained. But it is also through this pervasive sense of insecurity that populations are governed, from the scale of the body to the realms of international politics.”
― Fraser MacDonald, Observant States: Geopolitics and Visual Culture

“Rights are not gifts from the state; they are restraints upon it. A government that forgets this reverses the moral order of democracy. Authority must answer to liberty, not redefine it.”
― Shivanshu K. Srivastava

“No powerful nation can truly last forever, no matter how inpersanistic”
― Eiríka Krogsæter

“A decision marks the beginning.
Compliance carries it forward.
That’s the work of a Company Secretary.”
― Madhavan M K

“History does not judge intentions kindly when outcomes cause harm. Declarations of principle mean little if lived realities contradict them. A state is remembered not for what it promised, but for what it delivered. Justice must move from words to experience.”
― Shivanshu K. Srivastava

“A nation built from the flames of another mustn't last long”
― Eiríka Krogsæter