Patrick Moynihan
Patrick Moynihan
thinking government would-be
Irresponsibility breeds irresponsibility. The finances of government are so central. You'd think that would be pretty obvious.
guilty innocent governing
No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.
marriage children
As the family goes, so go the children.
sex moving government
...there is simply nothing so important to a people and its government as how many of them there are, whether their number is growing or declining, how they are distributed as between different ages, sexes, and different social classes and racial and ethnic groups, and again, which way these numbers are moving.
desire liberty citizens
Citizen participation is a device whereby public officials induce nonpublic individuals to act in a way the officials desire.
years social policy
If you don't have 30 years to devote to social policy, don't get involved.
children adults youth
At 14 you are still in most respects a dependent youth, in some respects a child. At 24 you are an adult. In between, extraordinary turbulences take place.
tasks given states
The US wished things to turn out as they did, and worked to bring this about. The department of state desired that the UN prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it undertook. This task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no inconsiderable success.
pride suffering quality
It is perhaps common in the world for individuals and nations to suffer for their noble qualities more than for their ignoble ones. For nobility is an occasion for pride, the most treacherous of sentiments.
people complicated enough
Things become complicated if there are enough people to complexify them.
loss past honor
To strip our past of glory is no great loss, but to deny it honor is devastating.
goal setting-goals program
It has proved politically wiser to set goals than to start programs.
winning important stories
What the press never does say is who the leaker is and why he wants the story leaked. Yet, more often than not, this is the more important story: What policy wins if the one being disclosed loses?
war government support
Secrecy is for losers. . . . It is time to dismantle government secrecy, this most persuasive of Cold War-era regulations. It is time to begin building the supports for the era of openness that is already upon us.