Ralph Nader Quotes

The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep.

We don't need secrecy.

If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.

I just think we need more accountability and more transparency.

Accountability begins with transparency.

Transparency increases credibility and accountability.

My attitude is that, if you have nothing to hide, why not show it?

We try and be as open as we can, and to protect the secrets that we must protect.

We either believe in accountability or we don't.

People who have nothing to hide, hide nothing. You should be an open book, be transparent.

There's no good that can come out of secrecy.

Radical transparency fosters goodness in so many ways for the same reasons that bad things are more likely to take place behind closed doors.

Secrecy was the problem; transparency the obvious cure.

One thing I have always promised is to be open and transparent and to treat employees and partners with respect and integrity.

I refuse to lie to children.

While all deception requires secrecy, all secrecy is not meant to deceive.

Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in its veins.

If you have nothing to hide, there is no reason not to be transparent.

My career is based on openness and honesty.

Well, I've got nothing to hide. Absolutely nothing.

I want to say here and now, that I demand unshakable integrity of every State employee.

I never did, or countenanced, in public life, a single act inconsistent with the strictest good faith; having never believed there was one code of morality for a public, and another for a private man.

I strongly believe in the principle of accountability and responsibility. It is the foundation of leadership.

I have observed that voluntary workers are apt to behave as if they are not bound to render a detailed account of the business or monies with which they are entrusted because, like Caesar's wife, they are above suspicion. This is sheer nonsense.

A dominion then, whose well-being depends on any man's good faith, and whose affairs cannot be properly administered, unless those who are engaged in them will act honestly, will be very unstable. On the contrary, to insure its permanence, its public affairs should be so ordered, that those who administer them, whether guided by reason or passion, cannot be led to act treacherously or basely.