Governance Quotes

“Third World is a state of the mind and until we change our attitude as Africans, if there is a fourth, fifth and even sixth world, we will be in it.”
― Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba

“Self-governance does not mean no one is responsible. It means everyone is.”
― Heather Marsh, Binding Chaos

“Where there is society, there is no need for charity.”
― Heather Marsh, Binding Chaos

“Politics doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt politics.”
― Amit Kalantri

“Leaders will love to be poor and see their people rich, than to be rich and see their people poor. This is their mission.”
― Israelmore Ayivor, Leaders' Ladder

“Family is in essence a small nation, and the nation a large family. In treating his own family with dignity, a ruler learns to govern his nation with dignity”
― Gene Luen Yang, Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search, Part 1

“Business is boss, politics is servant.”
― Amit Kalantri

“The peasant is the foundation of the state and must be governed with care. He must be allowed neither too much, nor too little, but just enough rice to live on and keep for seed in the following year. The remainder must be taken from him in tax.”
― Honda Masanobu

“What do you want to be, free or happy? How about if they really are mutually exclusive options? What is freedom anyway? How does humanity govern itself when each person can have anything they want? How does humanity govern itself when nothing is natural?”
― Jo Walton, What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Science Fiction & Fantasy

“Excerpt from page 113

[On Malaysia's Prime Minster's anti-capitalism and anti-globalization policies in September 1997]
"Ah, excuse me, Mahathir, but what planet are you living on? You talk about participating in globalization as if it were a choice you had. Globalization isn't a choice. It's a reality. There is just one global market today, and the only way you can grown at the speed your people want to grow is by tapping into the global stock and bond markets, by seeking out multinationals to invest in your country and by selling into the global trading systems what your factories produce. And the most basic truth about globalization is: No one is in charge. You keep looking for someone to complain to, someone to take the heat off your markets, someone to blame. Well, guess what, Mahathir, there's no one on the other end of the phone!"

"The Electronic Heard cuts no one any slack... The herd is not infallible. It makes mistakes too. It overreacts and it overshoots. But if your fundamentals are basically sound, the herd will eventually recognize this and come back. They herd is never stupid for too long. In the end, it always responds to good governance and good economic management.”
― Thomas L. Friedmann, The Lexus and the Olive Tree

“An anarchist government somehow creates an impression in the hearts of citizens that no one cares.”
― Amit Kalantri

“Bureaucrats and Politicians are different people, work of Bureaucrats makes us hate Politicians.”
― Amit Kalantri

“Maybe it is not a coincidence that, even in heaven, under the perspective of the Bible, there is a hierarchy. After all, what better way to impose the “benefits” of accepting the power of a hierarchy in the human mind?”
― Miguel Reynolds Brandao, The Sustainable Organisation - a paradigm for a fairer society: Think about sustainability in an age of technological progress and rising inequality

“when the democrats choose not to be democratic, democracy fails to be democratic.”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“There is no one more sinister or dangerous than an ambitious yet characterless Politician!”
― Robert Anthony Kerr

“Governance is different from Politics as is love-making and getting laid”
― Prabhukrishna M

“Politics needs loyalty and patience yet it desires love, knowledge and dedication.”
― Oscar Auliq-Ice

“Ignore the voice that scorns and ridicules to ensure it does not mold you. Stifling subtleties like these, if unchecked, are oppressive. Freedom is a love supreme birthright, not a privilege to be governed by any other.”
― T.F. Hodge, From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters With the Divine Presence

“When people think that politics is a joke, they then deserve the jokers that rule them.”
― Jit Sharma

“An act of charity by the citizens questions the worthiness of the government.”
― Amit Kalantri

“A government is only good in so far as it achieves the best kind of living together among a specific group of people and it should be obvious that there cannot be one way of living-together which will fit all types of people. Only those who, mostly from fear, and in self-defence, think of man as being an unvarying nonentity, could generate such an idea. Others will, or should, realise that the best way of living together for any specific group of people depends on the particular characteristics of that group.”
― G.M. Mes, Now-Men And Tomorrow-Men: Why We Are Not Equal?

“What we now have as a government is a god, built by our mortal hands and, yet, externally variant in power, always requiring our prayers, pity and appeals in order to fulfill its supposed purposes.”
― Tony Osborg

“Peasants are people without sense or forethought. Therefore, they must not give rice to their wives and children at harvest time, but must save food for the future. They should eat millet, vegetables, and other coarse food instead of rice. Even the fallen leaves of plants should be saved as food against famine.”
― Keian no Ofuregaki

“If people don't take politics seriously, then they deserve the jokers that rule over them.”
― Jit Sharma

“DAD (Decide-Announce-Defend) remains the order of the day, with only a few inspiring models of EDD (Engage-Deliberate-Decide) available to us to demonstrate how very different things could be.”
― Johnathon Porritt

“Monitor, transparently, and enforce the separation of Democracy powers: Legislative; Executive; Judicial”
― Miguel Reynolds Brandao, The Sustainable Organisation - a paradigm for a fairer society: Think about sustainability in an age of technological progress and rising inequality

“CEOs should be measured by the value they create into the community, the shareholders and the members of the company.”
― Miguel Reynolds Brandao, The Sustainable Organisation - a paradigm for a fairer society: Think about sustainability in an age of technological progress and rising inequality

“Adapt and adopt the peer-to-peer and open source models to wider implementation in organisations”
― Miguel Reynolds Brandao, The Sustainable Organisation - a paradigm for a fairer society: Think about sustainability in an age of technological progress and rising inequality

“The great Bonaventure said that the wise must enhance conceptual clarity with the truth implicit in the actions of the simple...."
"Like the chapter of Perugia and the learned memories of Ubertino, which transform into theological decisions the summons of the simple to poverty." I said.
"Yes, but as you have seen, this happens too late, and when it happens, the truth of the simple has already been transformed into the truth of the powerful, more useful for the Emperor Louis than for a Friar of the Poor Life.”
― Umberto Eco

“A high degree of autonomy is what permits innovation, experimentation and risk taking in a bureaucracy. If the slightest mistake can end a career, then no one will ever take risks.”
― Francis Fukuyama, Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy