Administrative Challenges Quotes

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

All Presidents start out to run a crusade but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely the presidency.

Within 90 days from the time Lincoln that is inaugurated, the Republican Party will be utterly ruined and destroyed. His path is environed with so many difficulties, that even if he had the ability of Jefferson and the energy of Jackson, he would fail, but he is a weak and inexperienced man, and his administration will be doomed from the commencement. If he takes that radical section of the Republican Party, the conservative wing of it will cut loose and repudiate him. If, on the other hand, he courts the conservatives and pursues a moderate conciliatory policy, the radicals will make open war upon his administration.

When I came here I thought I worked for the President. But I didn’t realize that I also worked for 534 other people at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue who all think that they are presidents.

The presidency is a place that is hemmed with all sorts of constraints and limitations. I don't think the American people quite know that the presidency is really a juggling act of competing pressures.

The Navajo Nation spends most of its time jumping through hoops.

To deal with what you have to deal with as mayor or president, there has to be an overriding psychological or professional or emotional gratification that would let you go through all the angst.

It has always been a most arduous task to govern distant provinces, with even a tolerable appearance of justice.

I regret that on my arrival in Mesopotamia I was too much occupied with military matters, and too ill-informed regarding the political problem….[We had] a scratch and somewhat incongruous team of administrators with the majority possessing little exact knowledge of the people they were called upon to monitor

Many veterans in Mississippi struggle with the bureaucratic process of the Veterans Administration.

He will also find that the high and independent spirit, which usually dwells in the breast of those who are deeply versed in scientific pursuits, is ill adapted for administrative appointments; and that even if successful, he must hear many things he disapproves, and raise no voice against them.

Jammu is part of the state but the people of Jammu do not face the same kind of difficulties that we face in Kashmir.

When you're in governance, you understand the limitations and the complexities of governance.

In political administration, no problem is ever simple. It can never be reduced to the question whether a certain measure is good or not.

America is the greatest country on Earth. But because of some of the mistakes that have been made, we, I think, are going to have a lot of work to do in the next administration to restore that sense that America is that shining beacon on a hill.

You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.

If you don’t have the budget, you can’t get anything done. That’s why bureaucrats are always fighting about budgets.

Many people who try to do big bold things in the world find out it's not about the money or the technology: It's about the regulatory hurdles that will try and stop you.

I think every administration has a settling-in process. And there's always an adjustment between what you can say during a campaign and what you find are the possibilities and the imperatives when you win the election and you enter the Oval Office.

I have worked in the federal government and saw the debilitating effects of our antiquated civil service system on morale and results.

Turf battles area a staple of every administration

No organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. .. No foresight can anticipate nor any document of reasonable length contain express provisions for all possible questions.

The presiding officers of Courts and judicial work performed by their clerks, and it has been with great difficulty that I have partially succeeded in getting them to record their proceedings in their hand. There are still a number of ignorant and illiterate Tehsildars and other officers, owing their employment to strong official influence, who would not and could not carry out my instructions.

For better or worse, when I was director of public prosecutions I had to deal with every challenge that came up, and come up with an answer. Being in opposition, you're not taking the decisions; you're saying what you would do if you were in power, and that's deeply frustrating.

You have acquired so enormous a mass of territory that it will be years before you can settle it or control it, or make it capable of defense or make it amenable to the acts of your administration