Quotes About Governance

Let the people think they govern and they will be governed.

I think we need more idiot control.

The legitimacy of the leadership depends on what that country thinks of its leaders.

Franklin Roosevelt had to govern at a time of crisis. If you're going to make changes in the way a nation thinks, you have to have the ability to take the crisis of the moment and use it to shape an agenda.

America somehow thinks that leadership relates to governance, and it certainly does. But society is much bigger than governance, and some of the truly great leadership of our society is outside the governance arena.

Those who own the country ought to govern it.

Good governance, safety, a chance to grow economically and professionally - those are important things.

If those in charge of our society - politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television - can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power. They will not need soldiers patrolling the streets. We will control ourselves.

The duties of the ruler are like those of the helmsman of a great ship. From his lofty position, he makes slight movements with his hands, and the ship, of itself, follows his desires and moves. This is the way whereby the one may control the ten thousand and by quiescence may regulate activity.

Local government in England is simply too big. Our lowest tier serves an average population of 118,500, while in the U.S. and across continental Europe the figures are more like several thousand.

I often say that shareholders should feel very responsible for how responsive corporations are to the public trust.

There may be a worse form of government than theocracy in the long run, but offhand I can't think of any.

A prudent governor will not roughly oppose even the superstitions of his people; and though he may wish they were wiser, he will know that he cannot make them so by offending their prejudices.

The ruler must be a philosopher as well as a king; and he must govern unwillingly, because he loves philosophy better than dominion.

The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the reason that governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it. But all things are made and perfected according to this reason.

A prudent governor will not roughly oppose even the superstitions of his people; and though he may wish that they were wiser, he will know that he cannot make them so by offending their prejudices.

States will never be happy until rulers become philosophers or philosophers become rulers. —PLATO, The Republic

Certainly He who governs the Whole will make good use of you and welcome you into some part of the joint workforce: but just make sure that your part is not that of the cheap and vulgar line in the comedy, as noted by Chrysippus.

Salus populi suprema est lex [the good of the people is the chief law].

These people who govern us should not be so carried away by their own political power that they turn away from peace, but neither should they embrace a peace that is dishonorable.

All of these men are thinking mostly about ruling and rulers. Who should rule, and how. Who should have power, how they should get it, and how they should use it.

The intersection of law, politics, and technology is going to force a lot of good thinking.

The Internet is not a thing, a place, a single technology, or a mode of governance. It is an agreement.

We are bringing technology into governance in a very big way. This is making governance easy, effective, economic and transparent.