Public Interest Quotes - Page 5

• Democracy does not have to be a bloodsport, it can be an honorable enterprise that advances the public interest.

  William J. Clinton

  Democracy, Doe, Honorable

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• Why does a woman carry a gun? Because, under our system, every citizen has the latitude to act in the absence of police; the latitude to act reasonably, to act immediately, to act in defense of self, to act in defense of another, to act with lethal force, to act with her acquired training and to act not in anger but to respond in purpose. To exercise the protections of that latitude in public policy, public interest and practical safety, all that is demanded of her is that she act reasonably under the circumstances.

  John Longenecker

  Exercise, Gun, Self

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• To say that only those businesses affected with a public interest may be regulated is but another way of stating that all those businesses which may be regulated are affected with a public interest.

  Harlan F. Stone

  May, Way, Interest

  Tyson and Brother v. Banton, 273 U.S. 418, (451), 1927.

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• The dissemination of the individual's opinions on matters of public interest is for us, in the historic words of the Declaration of Independence, an 'unalienable right' that 'governments are instituted among men to secure.' History shows us that the Founders were not always convinced that unlimited discussion of public issues would be 'for the benefit of all of us' but that they firmly adhered to the proposition that the 'true liberty of the press' permitted 'every man to publish his opinion'.

  John Marshall Harlan II

  Men, Issues, Freedom Of Speech

  Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 1967.

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• With deregulation, one sector of the economy after another is "liberated" to capital's unmonitored authority. The very notion that there is a public interest is contested.

  Herbert Schiller

  Deregulation, Economy, Authority

  "Living In The Number One Country". Book by Herbert Schiller, 2000.

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• Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honour, power and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superiour to all private passions.

  John Adams

  Real, Passion, Government

  Massachusetts Historical Society, John Adams, Samuel Adams, James Warren (1917). “Warren-Adams Letters: Being Chiefly a Correspondence Among John Adams, Samuel Adams, and James Warren ... 1743-1814”

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• As the contest proceeded, public interest increased and the entire country watched to see which company would win the big government subsidies through the mountains.

  John Moody

  Country, Winning, Government

  John Moody (1921). “The Railroad Builders: A Chronicle of the Welding of the States”

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• Whenever competition is feasible it is, for all its imperfections, superior to regulation as a means of serving the public interest.

  Alfred Kahn

  Mean, Imperfection, Competition

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• The role of campaign contributions in our political system and the role of lobbyists have now reached levels that are quite unhealthy for the operations of our democracy. But the antidote, as in past eras of lobbyist excess, is for more involvement by citizens to build pressure on members of the House and Senate to serve the public interest.

  Al Gore

  Past, House, Political

  ""What in the Hell Do They Think Is Causing It?"". Interview with John Dickerson, www.slate.com. December 8, 2009.

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• I'm an entertainer. I don't go round saying I'm a paragon of virtue, so that is clearly not in the public interest.

  Steve Coogan

  Virtue, Interest, Paragon

  "Steve Coogan: Why I won't let News Corp off the hook" by James Robinson, www.theguardian.com. September 5, 2011.

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• You see it even in our educational systems, where the market model becomes central. It's a matter of just gaining a skill or gaining access to a job to live in some vanilla suburb, as opposed to becoming a critical citizen concerned with public interest and common good.

  Cornel West

  Jobs, Educational, Skills

  "Cornel West Reconsiders President Obama". "Talk of the Nation" with Tony Cox, www.npr.org. August 2, 2010.

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• Especially without coverage, we have made it to 4, 5, 6% in the polls just on the power of the public interest out there from Americans who feel like they've been thrown under the bus by the two conventional parties.

  Jill Stein

  Party, Two, Polls

  Source: www.justicenewsnetwork.com

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• I think it's a sign of a gotcha political system that's looking to take down public interest candidates that they make a big deal out of a comment to a parent concerned about the exposure of young children to Wi-Fi. Now it turns out that Wi-Fi is actually untested. A large study by the NIH [National Institutes of Health] released a month ago raised serious questions about whether kids ought to be exposed, whether young children ought to be exposed to Wi-Fi. And you know, I'm not saying they should or they shouldn't but that this should be studied. Absolutely it should be studied.

  Jill Stein

  Children, Kids, Thinking

  Source: www.justicenewsnetwork.com

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• As a journalist, I think the only question that you ask yourself - once you've determined that the material is authentic - is what is in the public interest to know. And then you go about and report it.

  Glenn Greenwald

  Thinking, Determined, Now And Then

  Source: www.cbc.ca

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• Just in the course of an hour, people didn't need to be persuaded. They just needed to hear, oh my god, there is another plan here which is about the public interest.

  Jill Stein

  People, Needs, Hours

  Source: www.cpa-connecticut.com

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• Donald Trump has to understand and his family has to understand that there is a public interest which transcends them.

  Newt Gingrich

  Trump, Interest

  Source: www.npr.org

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• If we simply follow the rules that a state imposes upon us when that state is acting contrary to the public interest, we're not actually improving anything. We're not changing anything.

  Edward Snowden

  Acting, States, Interest

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• I'm saying we need to be aware of it, and we need to be able to distinguish when political developments are occurring that are contrary to the public interest.

  Edward Snowden

  Political, Needs, Development

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• My whole model, from the beginning, was not to personally publish a single document. I provided these documents to journalists because I didn't want my biases to decide what's in the public interest and what is not.

  Edward Snowden

  Want, Interest, Journalist

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• When governments go too far to punish people for actions that are dissent rather than a real threat to the nation, they risk delegitimizing not just their systems of justice, but the legitimacy of the government itself. Because when they bring political charges against people for acts that were clearly at least intended to work in the public interest, they deny them the opportunity to mount a public-interest defense.

  Edward Snowden

  Real, Opportunity, Government

  Source: www.thenation.com

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• The charges [government] brought against me, for example, explicitly denied my ability to make a public-interest defense.

  Edward Snowden

  Government, Example, Defense

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• In the long run, the public interest depends on private virtue.

  James Q. Wilson

  Running, Long, Virtue

  James Q. Wilson (1995). “On Character: Essays”, p.23, American Enterprise Institute

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• If you look at the way all of the new reform movements dedicated to the public interest are living and thriving on the Internet, I do think there is still some considerable hope that the full participation of individuals in that conversation of democracy can once again restore the integrity of the way our democracy works.

  Al Gore

  Integrity, Thinking, Democracy

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The Open Market Committee, as presently established, is plainly not in the public interest. This committee must be operated by purely public servants, representatives of the people as a whole and not any single interest group. The Open Market Committee should be abolished, and its powers transferred to the Federal Reserve Board - the present public members of the committee, with reasonably short terms of office.

  Wright Patman

  Wisdom, Office, People

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• Also, the Federal Advisory Committee should be enlarged and reorganized. Members should be chosen for the broadest possible representation of the public interest, their main qualification: ability.

  Wright Patman

  Politics, Economy, Members

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