Public Interest Quotes - Page 2

• The essence of government is concern for the widest possible public interest; the essence of the humanities, it seems to me, is private study, thought, and passion. Publicity is a essential to the one as privacy is to the other.

  John Updike

  Passion, Government, Essence

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• By encouraging men to spy and report on one another, by making it in the private interest of large numbers of citizens to evade the controls, and by making actions illegal that are in the public interest, the controls undermine individual morality.

  Milton Friedman

  Men, Numbers, Spy

  Milton Friedman (1972). “An economist's protest: columns in political economy”

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• One of the most powerful defences the media can offer for controversial actions is, of course, public interest.

  Rowan Williams

  Powerful, Media, Action

  "This media tribe disfigures public life" by Rowan Williams, www.theguardian.com. June 16, 2005.

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• In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we lose the services of the exceptions who are good Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily.

  William Howard Taft

  Men, Judging, Benches

  William Howard Taft, William Taft “Popular Government: Its Essence, Its Permanence and Its Perils”, Transaction Publishers

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• Conservation will ultimately boil down to rewarding the private landowner who conserves the public interest.

  Aldo Leopold

  Conservation, Interest, Land Conservation

  Aldo Leopold (2013). “Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)”, p.473, Library of America

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• Advertising justifies its existence when used in the public interest-it is much too powerful a tool to use solely for commercial purposes.

  Howard Gossage

  Powerful, Tools, Purpose

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• Public interest in most of the Middle East was slight at that time; the Arab-Israeli conflict was all that people were interested in and that was not my specialty.

  Juan Cole

  Aunt, People, Middle East

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• You are in the field to defend the public interest, the financial truth for investors and the funds that should support the widow and the orphan.

  Clarence W. Barron

  Support, Widows, Fields

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• I think prime ministers, I actually think Cabinet ministers should be subject to intense scrutiny, I think that's in the public interest, even if some of the allegations made aren't right and so on, and they have to correct the record, it doesn't matter.

  Alexander Downer

  Thinking, Records, Matter

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• In 1998, I founded the American Center for Law and Justice, probably the premier public interest law firm in America defending the rights of believers.

  Pat Robertson

  Rights, Law, America

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• I carefully evaluated every single document I disclosed to ensure that each was legitimately in the public interest. There are all sorts of documents that would have made a big impact that I didn't turn over, because harming people isn't my goal. Transparency is.

  Edward Snowden

  Impact, Nsa, People

  "Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations". Article by Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras, www.theguardian.com. June 11, 2013.

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• There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back...

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Country, Men, Law

  "The Past Through Tomorrow" by Robert A. Heinlein, G. P. Putnam Inc., (p. 25), 1967.

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• Deep Throat did serve the public interest by providing the guidance and information to us.

  Bob Woodward

  Information, Guidance, Interest

  "Watergate: 25 Years Later". The Washington Post Interview, www.washingtonpost.com. June 17, 1997.

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• But I must add that the U.S. government must not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual, in a church or out of it, becomes dangerous to the public interest, he must be checked; but let the churches, as such take care of themselves. It will not do for the U.S. to appoint Trustees, Supervisors, or other agents for the churches.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Running, Religious, Government

  Abraham Lincoln (1989). “Abraham Lincoln: Speeches & Writings Part 2: 1859-1865: Library of America #46”, p.427, Library of America

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• ...there is no more effective public interest watchdog in Washington, D.C.

  Bill Moyers

  Integrity, Interest

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• If you are given a public responsibility, you have to listen, weigh up all the issues, but ultimately you have to form a view of what you genuinely think is in the public interest... put the public interest above the vested interest.

  Graeme Samuel

  Leadership, Business, Responsibility

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• Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people, and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depositary of the public interests. In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Wise, Country, Party

  Thomas Jefferson (1854). “The Writings of Thomas Jefferson”, p.376

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• The majority of men cannot be made disinterested for life by exhortation, by religious services, by any expenditure of subsidized works, or even by grave and manifest public need. They can be made permanently unselfish only by being helped to become disinterested in their individual purposes. In the complete democracy a man must in some way be made to serve the nation in the very act of contributing to his own individual fulfillment. Not until his personal action is dictated by disinterested motives can there be any such harmony between private and public interests.

  Herbert Croly

  Religious, Men, Democracy

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• The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.

  William Howard Taft

  Exercise, Power, President

  William Howard Taft, David Henry Burton (2009). “William Howard Taft: Essential Writings and Addresses”, p.200, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press

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• Now listen to the first three aims of the corporatist movement in Germany, Italy and France during the 1920s. These were developed by the people who went on to become part of the Fascist experience: (1) shift power directly to economic and social interest groups; (2) push entrepreneurial initiative in areas normally reserved for public bodies; (3) obliterate the boundaries between public and private interest -- that is, challenge the idea of the public interest. This sounds like the official program of most contemporary Western governments.

  John Ralston Saul

  Ideas, Government, People

  John Ralston Saul (2012). “The Unconscious Civilization”, p.89, Simon and Schuster

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• Moskin has brought together with care and lucidity an inside history of American diplomacy written through the eyes of the many diplomats who conceived and carried it out over 225 years. You experience the challenges, successes, and foibles. Over time, the Foreign Service evolved into a professional cadre serving the public and presidents, often at the peril of their lives. Anyone interested in understanding our diplomacy, what makes it tick, and how it strives to serve the public interest should read this masterful history.

  Thomas R. Pickering

  Eye, Years, Understanding

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• No one’s personal life is in the public interest. It’s gossip, bottom line. End of story.

  Kevin Spacey

  Gossip, Stories, Lines

  "Kevin Spacey On His New Film Casino Jack: Interview and Trailer". Interview with Kevin Sessums, www.thedailybeast.com. December 14, 2010.

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• . . when the target of crime is armed, there is more law present, more public policy present, and more public interest served than by all 20,000 gun laws in force.

  John Longenecker

  Gun, Law, Target

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• It is generally agreed that casinos should, in the public interest, be inaccessible and expensive. And perhaps the same is true of Stock Exchanges.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Gambling, Casinos, Financial

  John Maynard Keynes (2006). “General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money”, p.143, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• Broadcasters have a responsibility to serve the public interest and protect Americans from objectionable content, particularly during the hours when children are likely to be watching.

  Bart Gordon

  Children, Responsibility, Hours

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