#Transparency Quotes

“Men are like Geneva watches with crystal faces, which expose the whole movement.”

“It is vain to keep a secret from one who has a right to know it. It will tell itself.”

“No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all- disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report.”

“Congress in session is Congress on public exhibition, whilst Congress in its committee-rooms is Congress at work.”

“My dream of politics all my life has been that it is the common business, that it is something we owe to each other to understand and discuss with absolute frankness.”

“Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at.”

“The cure for bad politics is the same as the cure for tuberculosis. It is living in the open.”

“Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.”

“The diffusion of information and the arraignment of all abuses at the bar of public reason, I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one of] those which ought to shape its administration.”

“There's the one thing no nation can ever accuse us of and that is secret diplomacy. Our foreign are an open book, generally a check book.”

“When I take a look at a company's annual report, if I don't understand it, they don't want me to understand it.”

“I'll bring my tax returns; you bring yours. I'll meet you anytime anywhere.”

“Our fellow-citizens think they have a right to full information, in a case of such great concernment to them. It is their sweat which is to earn all the expenses of the war, and their blood which is to flow in expiation of the causes of it.”

“And for me, I guess the person who I tell everything that I'm going through is you. The fans.”

“They took care to represent government as a thing made up of mysteries, which only themselves understood, and they hid from the understanding of the nation, the only thing that was beneficial to know, namely, that government is nothing more than a national association acting on the principles of society.”

“As gas-light is found to be the best nocturnal police, so the universe protects itself by pitiless publicity.”

“I’ve never been shy or secretive with the fact that if you walk into my life, you may be walking onto a record.”

“One of the big differences between Democrats and Republicans is that we at least know what the Democrats stand for, whether we agree with it or not. But, for Republicans, we have to guess”

“No government should be without critics. If its intentions are good then it has nothing to fear from criticism.”

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of today.”

“There is no den in the wide world to hide a rogue. Commit a crime, and the earth is made of glass. Commit a crime, and it seems as if a coat of snow fell on the ground, such as reveals in the woods the track of every partridge and fox and squirrel and mole.”

“The leader works in the open and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”

“Let them know precisely what you are going to do with their data”

“Listening to my songs is like reading my diary.”

“It is better that the truth be known than that scandal be covered up.”

“I've talked to you on a number of occasions about the economic problems our nation faces, and I am prepared to tell you it's in a hell of a mess-we're not connected to the press room yet, are we?”

“Happy the man who never puts on a face, but receives every visitor with that countenance he has on.”

“People who love sausage and respect the law should never watch either being made.”

“We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute.”

“I have even seen the writings suggesting that I am playing a deep game, that I am using the present turmoil to foist my fads on India, and am making religious experiments at India's expense. I can only answer that Satyagraha is made of sterner stuff. There is nothing reserved and nothing secret in it.”

“I have a consistent rule: The American people should know as much about the Pentagon as the Soviet Union and China do, as much about General Motors as Ford does, and as much about City Bank as Chase Manhattan does.”

“Secrecy destroys accountability.”

“Information is the currency of democracy. It's denial must always be suspect.”

“Nothing short of a federal investigation can begin to disclose the abuses which have woven a fine web of mutually implicating relationships between businessmen and government officials.”

“When the citizens of a society can see and hear their leaders, then that society should be seen as one.”

“There are two things nobody should ever have to watch being made, sausage and laws.”

“Success in politics demands that you must take your people into confidence about your views and state them very clearly, very politely, very calmly, but nevertheless, state them openly.”

“Perfect sincerity and transparency make a great part of beauty, as in dewdrops, lakes, and diamonds.”

“Let our lives be open books for all to study.”

“The officers do not beat the men; the officers and men receive equal treatment. Soldiers are free to hold meetings and speak out. Trivial formalities have been done away with and the accounts are open for all to inspect.”

“Nothing is hidden under the sun.”

“Crime and vice generally require darkness for prowling. They disappear when light plays upon them.”

“Twitter is great to connect with fans and be transparent. I enjoy that aspect about it. But really, I'm still trying to figure it out.”

“Don't hide bad news. With multiple information channels available, bad news always becomes known. Be candid right from the start.”

“Even if I'm talking about something that's negative, I look at it as putting my mistakes out there for people to learn from it.”

“No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary.”

“You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint "No Admittance" on my gate.”

“How much I love every thing that is decided and open!”

“The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society. ... There is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.”

“You have to tell the whole truth, the good and the bad, maybe some things that are uncomfortable for some people.”