#Public Good Quotes

“In the Greek cities, it was reckoned profane, that any person should pretend a property in a work of art, which belonged to all who could behold it.”

“Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal, but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which contribute to the improvement of the country, and some of them to its preservation.”

“Honesty and interest are as intimately connected in the public as in the private code of morality.”

“It would be worth the while if in each town there were a committee appointed to see that the beauty of the town received no detriment. If we have the largest boulder in the county, then it should not belong to an individual, nor be made into door-steps.”

“As in many countries precious metals belong to the crown, so here more precious natural objects of rare beauty should belong to the public.”

“The foundations of justice are that on one shall suffer wrong; then, that the public good be promoted.”

“The administration of government, like a guardianship ought to be directed to the good of those who confer, not of those who receive the trust.”

“A people contending for life and liberty are seldom disposed to look with a favorable eye upon either men or measures whose passions, interests or consequences will clash with those inestimable objects.”

“The aggregate happiness of the society, which is best promoted by the practice of a virtuous policy, is, or ought to be, the end of all government . . . .”

“In a democratic nation, power must be linked with responsibility, and obliged to defend and justify itself within the framework of the general good.”

“It is the purpose of the government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.”

“I think whenever something is - whenever there's something that affects the public good, then there does need to be some form of public oversight.”

“Private property ... is a Creature of Society, and is subject to the Calls of that Society, whenever its Necessities shall require it, even to its last Farthing, its contributors therefore to the public Exigencies are not to be considered a Benefit on the Public, entitling the Contributors to the Distinctions of Honor and Power, but as the Return of an Obligation previously received, or as payment for a just Debt.”

“I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made, nor proposed to make, the least profit by any of them.”