Daniel Patrick Moynihan Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Pandaemonium was inhabited by creatures quite convinved that the great Satan had their best interests at heart. Poor little devils.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Heart, Devil, Littles

  9 Copy quote

• The amount of violations of human rights in a country is always an inverse function of the amount of complaints about human rights violations heard from there. The greater the number of complaints being aired, the better protected are human rights in that country.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Country, Rights, Numbers

  15 Copy quote

• Government cannot provide values to persons who have none, or who have lost those they had. It cannot provide inner peace. It can provide outlets for moral energies, but it cannot create those energies.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Government, Inner Peace, Energy

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1975). “Coping: On the Practice of Government”, Vintage Books USA

  23 Copy quote

• At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of the Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Heart, Deterioration, Fabric

  41 Copy quote

• We have the right to our own opinions, but not our own facts.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Facts, Opinion

  11 Copy quote

• The Soviet Union came apart along ethnic lines. The most important factor in this breakup was the disinclination of Slavic Ukraine to continue under a regime dominated by Slavic Russia. Yugoslavia came apart also, beginning with a brutal clash between Serbia and Croatia, here again 'nations' with only the smallest differences in genealogy; with, indeed, practically a common language. Ethnic conflict does not require great differences; small will do.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Breakup, Russia, Ukraine

  22 Copy quote

• As the family goes, so go the children.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Marriage, Children

  9 Copy quote

• Citizen participation is a device whereby public officials induce nonpublic individuals to act in a way the officials desire.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Desire, Liberty, Citizens

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1970). “Toward a national urban policy”

  17 Copy quote

• A commonplace of political rhetoric has it that the quality of a civilization may be measured by how it cares for its elderly. Just as surely, the future of a society may be forecast by how it cares for its young.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Elderly, Civilization, Political

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1987). “Family and Nation: The Godkin Lectures, Harvard University”, Harcourt

  15 Copy quote

• The Lord looks after drunks and Americans.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Looks, Lord

  1995 Of the avoidance of casualties in the Haitian intervention. In the US News and World Report, 9 Jan.

  10 Copy quote

• Irresponsibility breeds irresponsibility. The finances of government are so central. You'd think that would be pretty obvious.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Thinking, Government, Would Be

  Source: articles.latimes.com

  9 Copy quote

• The work of democratic government is routinely concerned with matters defined as troubles. In "The Presidency and the Press" I make the point, familiar to anyone who has flown about the world much, that the best quick test of the political nature of a regime is to read the local papers on arrival. If they are filled with bad news, you have landed in a libertarian society of some sort. If, on the other hand, the press is filled with good news, it is a fair bet that the jails will be filled with good men.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Men, Hands, Jail

  26 Copy quote

• No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Guilty, Innocent, Governing

  4 Copy quote

• People who pierce the veil of money rarely return with their faculties altogether intact.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  People, Veils, Return

  Source: articles.latimes.com

  13 Copy quote

• Things become complicated if there are enough people to complexify them.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  People, Complicated, Enough

  1991 Of the19,000-member congressional back-up staff. In the NewYork Times,12 Nov.

  4 Copy quote

• If we get into the mind-set where the good becomes the enemy of the best, we will get nothing.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Mind, Enemy, Mind Set

  9 Copy quote

• The great corporations of this country were not founded by ordinary people. They were founded by people with extraordinary intelligence, ambition, and aggressiveness.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Country, Business, Ambition

  23 Copy quote

• 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.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  War, Government, Support

  7 Copy quote

• I have no doubt that there will continue to be bumps, some serious crises indeed in our relationship with China.... Neither membership in the WTO nor normalized trade relations with the United States will magically impose the rule of law on China or institute deep-seeded respect for human rights. But it certainly has potential to advance those purposes.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Rights, Law, Doubt

  8 Copy quote

• 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.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Children, Adults, Youth

  14 Copy quote

• Political society wants things simple. Political scientists know them to be complex... One could argue that, in part, the leftist impulse is so conspicuous among the educated and well-to-do precisely because they are exposed to more information, and are accordingly forced to choose between living with the strains of complexity, or lapsing into simplism.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Simple, Political, Want

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan (1975). “Coping: On the Practice of Government”, Vintage Books USA

  15 Copy quote

• We've come full circle but the best remains the heart of the city, the greatest center of the greatest city, our Acropolis, where our Christmas tree is lighted.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Heart, Cities, Circles

  1991 On NewYork's Rockefeller Centre. In the NewYork Times, 15 Mar.

  23 Copy quote

• Stubborn opposition to proposals often has no other basis than the complaining question, 'Why wasn't I consulted?'

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Complaining, Stubborn, Proposal

  5 Copy quote

• If you don't have 30 years to devote to social policy, don't get involved.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Years, Social, Get Involved

  7 Copy quote

• It has proved politically wiser to set goals than to start programs.

  Daniel Patrick Moynihan

  Goal, Setting Goals, Program

  4 Copy quote

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