Public Men Quotes

In this country, politicians of desperate private fortunes always find the means of keeping themselves above water as public men.

I do not consider that letters written to public men on matters affecting the public interest and threatening the public welfare are private letters.

The tone of a portion of the press of the country toward public men, and especially toward political opponents, is degrading, all forms of coarse and noisy slander being apparently considered legitimate weapons to employ against men of the opposite party or faction.

Democracy is a word all public men use and none understand.

The public cannot be too curious concerning the characters of public men.

You will find as you grow older that courage is the rarest of all qualities to be found in public men.

Revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse. We should be wary therefore what persecution we raise against the living labors of public men

Public men rarely keep their promises to retire from public life.

Happily we do not idolize our public men.

Of all our public men of today he stands first in my reverence & admiration, & the next one stands two-hundred-&-twenty-fifth. He is the only statesman we have now. ... Cleveland drunk is a more valuable asset to this country than the whole batch of the rest of our public men sober. He is high-minded; all his impulses are great & pure & fine. I wish we had another of this sort.

[Impeachment is a] method of national inquest into the conduct of public men.

What we want, above all things on earth in our public men, is independence. It is one great defect in the character of the public men of America that there is that real want of independence; and, in this respect, a most marked contrast exists between public men in this country and in Great Britain.

When we speak freely, let us speak plainly, for plain speech is wholesome; especially, plain speech about public affairs and public men.

When public men indulge themselves in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and insinuation, to libel, scandal, and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged, and democracy is baffled.

Shrewdness in public life all over the world is always honored, while honesty in public men is generally attributed to dumbness and is seldom rewarded.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

I grow in worth, and wit, and sense, Unboding critic-pen, Or that eternal want of pence, Which vexes public men.

What public men, whether in or out of office, must avoid, is the making of predictions. This is what is called, in their own language, " committing themselves," and is never done without the greatest caution and necessity; and, therefore, whenever public men choose to put themselves at issue with the ministers, and hazard predictions, they become from that moment entitled to the praise of superior wisdom or not, just as their expectations are or are not verified by the event.

Public men are all amenable to the tribunal of the press in a free state. The greater, indeed, their trust, the more respectable are they.

The great corrupter of public men is the ego - corrupter because distracter. Wealth, sensuality, power cannot hold a candle to it. Looking in the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.

I trust that the time may never come when the love of fame shall cease to be the sovereign passion of public men.

It is seldom that public men see more beyond direct consequences.

[Imeachable conduct is] misconduct by public men, or, in other words, from the abuse or violation of some public trust.

Public men have, however, to pick their steps as best they may, for the straight path would lead too often to the cliff-edge.

The conduct and opinions of public men at different periods of their careers must not be curiously contrasted in a free and aspiring society.