Quotes About Accountability

For 200 years, the dominant powers have also been the colonial powers: the European countries, the U.S. and Japan. They have never been required to pay their dues for what they did to those whom they possessed and treated with contempt.

Democratic leaders, whose power is ultimately dependent on popular support, are held accountable for failing to improve the lives of their citizens. Therefore, they have a powerful incentive to keep their societies peaceful and prosperous.

At what point in time can our government fire someone whose gross negligence left four Americans dead in Benghazi?

If science doesn't convince you, just Google 'cheating politicians' for the long and sordid list of men - like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mark Sanford, and John Edwards - whose hormones got the best of them.

I like to think of myself as a leader whose door is always open. But I recently learned that an open door isn't enough.

Should those whose actions lead to the death or injury of a child get a free pass?

But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I've ruined, anyone whom I've driven out of the service, anyone I've fired from a job.

I think that we as a people are always prone to think about, well, tomorrow will be a better day. Well, why will it be a better day? And I think the more that we believe in doing things better, doing the right thing rather than hoping that that's going to happen, let's make it happen.

You can make a million excuses for why something didn't go well, but ultimately, just fix it and get on with it. Be a solutions person.

Michael Jordan taught me after our game of one-on-one: A loss is not a failure until you make an excuse. When excuses are no longer an option, you can focus your attention on the job you have to do, and not why it didn't get done.

This is my journey. If I fall, I have to pick myself up. If I'm not getting the playing time I want, it's up to me to figure out why.

The second guy always gets caught, and that's why you have to initiate it instead of retaliating.

If you turn a blind eye to fare evasion, if you accustom people to getting away with minor crime, you are making it more likely that they will go on to commit more serious crimes. That is why we have so much disorder in London. It is a disgrace.

I've made mistakes, and I know why I made them, but I made that choice. Nobody's ever made a choice for me.

People want to see you on the pitch. That was why I left Chelsea. I didn't want to hear people saying, 'Hey, he's doing well in training, blah blah blah... ' The game is what counts.

In Staten Island, when you have video showing the alleged chokehold used on Eric Garner, why not go to trial and have the officer(s) explain the tape, and then this jury can determine guilt or innocence? The tape should guarantee that there should be a trial.

We measure everything - why not governance?

Remarkably, governments are beginning to embrace the idea that nothing enhances democracy more than giving voice and information to everybody in the country. Why not open their books if they have nothing to hide?

It would be wrong to say I enjoy having rows, because that would be un-Christian. If people attack me, then I respond, or if they do very wicked things. Then they must be brought to book.

I think that from day one, when it became clear that 'Wicked' was going to have a life, that we have set a standard for ourselves that we are never going to shortchange the audience; that every person that we put into that musical is going to be held to the highest standards; and that nobody is going to be coasting.

Accept the terrible responsibility of life with eyes wide open.

The lack of trust between the federal government and the American citizens of this country is such a wide gap, we have to renew that trust for the people of this country going forward.

Whenever America sends its citizens into harm's way, it must do so with eyes wide open.

As a wide receiver, you don't want to feel that the quarterback is only going to throw you the ball if you're wide open.