"A body of men holding themselves accountable..." - Quote by Thomas Paine
A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.
More by Thomas Paine
“Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value. But the landed monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before.”
“I am sensible that he who means to do mankind a real service must set down with the determination of putting up, and bearing with all their faults, follies, prejudices and mistakes until he can convince them that he is right.”
“Man did not enter society to be worse off, or to have fewer rights, but rather to have those rights better secured”
More on Accountability
“The most important decisions in organizations are people decisions, and yet only the military, and only recently, has begun to ask, "If we assign this general to lead this base, what do we expect him to accomplish?"”
“Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.”
“If the ANC does to you what the apartheid government did to you, then you must do to the ANC what you did to the apartheid government.”
More on Trust
“It is not worth while to strain one's self to tell the truth to people who habitually discount everything you tell them, whether it is true or isn't.”
“Of the best rulers, The people only know that they exist; the next best they love and praise the next they fear; and the next they revile. When they do not command the people's faith, some will lose faith in them, and then they resort to oaths! But of the best when their task is accomplished, their work done, the people all remark, We have done it ourselves.”
“I have unclasp'd to thee the book even of my secret soul.”