Quotes About Accountability

You can sweep broken glass under the carpet, but eventually it will work its way through the rug and cut your foot.

Lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, "Why not?"

The attempt to interpret human behavior in terms of models derived from the natural sciences eventually destroys personal responsibility.

Criminals who went against Doc seldom wound up in prison. They either learned a lesson that made them law-abiding men the rest of their lives--or they became dead criminals. Doc never did the job halfway.

In politics, being deceived is no excuse.

We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.

By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn't doing it.

I envy people who drink -- at least they know what to blame everything on.

If the members of a class do not understand -- if those directly addressed fail to listen, or listening, fail to recognize a power in the voice -- surely the fault lies with the speaker, who, having attempted to secure their attention and enlighten their understandings, has failed in the attempt.

As the leaders of this great country, I urge my fellow colleagues in the House, governors, and presidential candidates alike to hold ourselves up to a higher standard.

We urge the Department of Justice to carefully investigate and aggressively prosecute all senior bank officials who participated in manipulating the London interbank offered rate throughout the financial crisis.

The fight against child slavery is the fight against traditional mindset, policy deficit, and lack of accountability and urgency for children across the globe.

Things will only improve when the people - all of us - say to authorities, 'I will hold you responsible.' We should all be showing up at city council meetings, lighting up every community with activism and mobilization.

It is impossible for us to break the law. We can only break ourselves against the law.

It is no use to blame the looking glass if your face is awry.

Transparency is key to reciprocal accountability, which we use to be both free and smart. It is the miracle tool that enables us to question the lies of monsters.

You had no right to be born; for you make no use of life. Instead of living for, in, and with yourself, as a reasonable being ought, you seek only to fasten your feebleness on some other person's strength.

When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that determines the kind of men we are.

You gotta do what you gotta do. And I had to figure that out, and I used to - I couldn't stand the media, but I realized they have a job. They gotta do what they have to do.

Every pound that comes into the Exchequer was earned by someone through hard work, and could have been used for a new car, a holiday or a treat for the children. It means I have a responsibility to make sure that all public spending is justified.

I never run away from the responsibility. I'm used to it.

Capitalism requires individual responsibility and accountability. People are seen as atomized units in a capitalist system - they are either useful, or they are not. They are not seen racially or ethnically or religiously. They consume and they produce, and those are their only relevant characteristics.

I am a son of my nation. It does not matter whether I am prime minister, a soldier, or a policeman. The main thing is to be useful to the people, that I can look into people's eyes, and that people see that there are real benefits from my activities.

I think politics often seems remote, and anything we can do to show more of the workings - how you make the sausage - is useful.