Governance Quotes

In Confucian thought, individuals practice moral virtue both by restraining themselves and pursuing their own interests. This is a dual push-and-pull process. In today’s China, the latter is taken care of by capitalism and commerce. The former, however, needs to be taken care of by the rule of law. Otherwise, the system of governance is corrupted by unrestrained individual desires and selective enforcement of ‘virtue’ or law.

~ Patrick Mendis

Democracy is probably the only discovery by mankind which mostly brought it only happiness.

~ Amit Kalantri

Let us do our best whilst we live for another tomorrow is coming when whilst we are long gone, another group of people shall come to either suffer from our worst or enjoy and build upon our best. Let us run whole heatedly today with all alacrity for another generation shall come for the baton from our hands to either blame us or congratulate us on how we lived the dream and journeyed in life through the good and the bad times; another generation shall come to ponder over our footprints as a good or a bad lesson for them! Let us run with all necessary zeal such that when we hand over the baton, our next generation will have no reason but to soldier on with courage, enthusiasm and absolute commitment to get to the finishing line with a great accomplishment and a noble story worth pondering over and over!

~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

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

All governments, even these precious “democracies,” derive all their power by force. Do something the government doesn’t want, like, say, cross the street against the light, refuse to submit to its authority, and it won’t be long before they’ll use some form of force, usually a weapon and the threat of death or injury, to compel you to comply.

~ S. Evan Townsend

Let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know, that so far as we approve of monarcy, that in America the law is King. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.

~ Thomas Paine

In questions of power, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.

~ Thomas Jefferson

Monitor, transparently, and enforce the separation of Democracy powers: Legislative; Executive; Judicial

~ Miguel Reynolds Brandao

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

There are seemingly parallel origins of Nature’s God in America and China’s Mandate of Heaven. These twin concepts created socio-political forces for public good and orderly governance, and a unique cultural ethos (related to the Creator of the Universe in America and the Son of Heaven in China) is deeply rooted in both societies. Each concept is physically yet stealthily manifested in the architectural designs of the two capital cities, Beijing and Washington.

~ Patrick Mendis

Bill C-9 was supposed to be a budget bill, but it came with innumerable measures that had little or nothing to do with the nation's finances. It was, as critics put it, the advance of the Harper agenda by stealth, yet another abuse of the democratic process. The bill was a behemoth. It was 904 pages, with 23 separate sections and 2,208 individual clauses....As a Reform MP, [Stephen Harper] .... said of one piece of legislation that 'the subject matter of the bill is so diverse that a single vote on the content would put members in conflict with their own principles.' The bill he referred to was 21 page long -- or 883 pages shorter than the one he was now putting before Parliament.

~ Lawrence Martin

We are in a prison of our own minds holding our own chains around us. We create our oligarchs and fight for their right to oppress us.

~ Heather Marsh

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

when the democrats choose not to be democratic, democracy fails to be democratic.

~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

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

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. Friedman

While mistakes may be local, in today’s connected world embarrassment is global

~ Gyan Nagpal

Your worst enemy is not the person in opposition to you. It is the person occupying the spot you would be fighting from and doing nothing.

~ Heather Marsh

Adapt and adopt the peer-to-peer and open source models to wider implementation in organisations

~ Miguel Reynolds Brandao

CEOs should be measured by the value they create into the community, the shareholders and the members of the company.

~ Miguel Reynolds Brandao

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

Innovation is a mindset, and that’s where governance comes in.

~ Pearl Zhu

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

A focused Board concentrates on strategy oversight and governance practices, to avoid getting lost in the forest.

~ Pearl Zhu

Generally speaking, the key dimensions of corporate governance are strategy oversight, policy making, accountability, and monitoring.

~ Pearl Zhu

There is a difference between needy and helpless. While doling out free benefits to the needy is condemnable, the helpless must be assisted to get their lives back on track. No one should be living in fear or under oppressive conditions.

~ Sumit Agarwal

Metaphorically, governance is like a “Steer,” Risk Management is like a “Brake.

~ Pearl Zhu

Most of the inhabitants of India do not mind how India is governed. Nor are the lower animals of England concerned about England, but in the tropics the indifference is more prominent, the inarticulate world is closer at hand and readier to resume control as soon as men are tired.

~ E.m. Forster

Governance is a way of organizing, amplifying, and constraining power.

~ Rebecca Mackinnon