Jacob K. Javits Quotes

No nation ever yet found any inconvenience from too close an inspection into the conduct of its officers, but many have been brought to ruin and reduced to slavery by suffering gradual impositions and abuses.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

To cover with the veil of secrecy the common routine of business is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man and every friend to his country.

Washington is a cesspool of non-accountability.

We should submit to careful examination and review a system which places such vast powers for evil in the hands of irresponsible individuals and which makes the possession of land not a trust but a means of extortion and exaction.

Can the public business be thus transacted and in secret?

basically, the more power politicians have, the hornier they get

Democracies can no longer tolerate bribery, fraud and dishonesty, especially as such practices disproportionately hurt the poor.

There can be no compromise regarding corruption.

If it were true that special favors were given to some of these people because they are my cronies, then they should still be here, and they should be wealthy. But who are these cronies? If there be any cronies in government, point them out, and we will investigate.

Americans can tolerate some secrecy, particularly when it is rooted in protection of the public's interests. But when the claims appear to hide wrongdoing, they begin to curdle.

I completely disagree if someone says that corruption of junior government officers should be overlooked.

But there will be no justice, there will be no government of the people, by the people, and for the people, as long as the government and its officials permit bribery in any form.

There's very little different between the way the government operates in America and the way criminals do.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Honesty, integrity, and accountability, the values, which should be the hallmark of this government, have instead been thrown under the bus by an arrogant majority, casualties in a misguided campaign to shield from accountability those who abuse this House.

When it comes to governments and corporations, we should demand that less is secret. That's where corruption flowers.

This House cannot function without an open, accountable, and independent ethics process; and the molestation of that process by the majority is an abuse of power that cannot stand.

We have now recently launched the national integrity plan.

A government is the only vessel that leaks from the top.

When the Lord Chancellor violates the trust of his great office of state to solicit party donations from people whose careers he can control, and then says I'm not sorry, and I'd do it again no wonder the public think that power has gone to their heads.

Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective.

The secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is a secret band of robbers and murderers.

The pathological degree to which former Vice President Dick Cheney operated in secrecy led to government abuses that we'll probably spend years learning about.

Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.