Public Servant Quotes

Books can now be on the stands within days from delivery of a formatted manuscript, and often are.

All too often, academic departments defend their territory with the passion of cornered animals, though with far less justification.

All governments in all wars have used all the means at their disposal to put their own motives, decisions and actions, and the actions of their military forces, in the best possible light.

When friends and lovers die and your world gets quieter; that's when the silence comes closer; that's when next isn't the least bit theoretical or abstract.

What is perhaps more worthy of note than how many tsunami dead we've seen, however, is how many other recent dead we have not seen.

Well, I think everybody's a little jealous of the Vietnam Wall, even people from wars that already have good monuments. You have a monument like the Wall and nobody ever forgets your war, you can bet on that.

War is grounded in the notion of triumph and defeat. It is zero-sum.

The U.S. government has in recent years fought what it termed wars against AIDs, drug abuse, poverty, illiteracy and terrorism. Each of those wars has budgets, legislation, offices, officials, letterhead - everything necessary in a bureaucracy to tell you something is real.

The key fact missed most often by social scientists utilizing documentary films for data, is this: documentary films are not found or reported things; they're made things.

America has the longest prison sentences in the West, yet the only condition long sentences demonstrably cure is heterosexuality.

They take pride in their schools. They begin to participate, where, when they are renters, they don't do that. So what we're doing by this program is strengthening America.

The other part of outsourcing is this: it simply says where the work can be done outside better than it can be done inside, we should do it.

The Bush administration is the most diverse in history because the president fills jobs on the basis of a person's capabilities and qualifications, not on the color of his or her skin.

So, I have the responsibility of making sure that HUD functions and runs well.

Progress for black Americans depends on good schools because education is the last great equalizer.

One of the problems that we are confronted with is, when we decide to buy or build a home, we don't get a clear picture of what closing costs will be of that home.

In the final analysis, it is your decision to make, but it doesn't move as fast as I'd like it to move.

I think that there will always be a need for Housing and Urban Development.

I think serving your government is the greatest thing in the world.

HUD's mission is to provide decency and sanitary housing for low and moderate income people in this country.

For the first half of my adult life, I was a Democrat.

But we look back now, and we realize the Great Society was not a success.

But I do know this: that the two and a half years that I've been at HUD, I am absolutely convinced that some of the best workers in the world are in Federal Government.

As you know, in this country Anglo-Americans are about 75 to 76 percent home ownership in this country, where Hispanics, African Americans are less than 50 percent.

And I always like to stress, it's not a quota, not a set-aside, it's not about race, it's about giving opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to do work with the Federal Government.

And for far too long, the Democrats have had a monopoly on black votes in this country.

America is a place where you can be born into a low-income household but still lift yourself up, and it doesn't matter what color you are.

After leaving law school, I intentionally said that I never wanted to hold a job more than six years.

The largest challenge that we face, from my perspective, is the ability to continue moving forward so the agency will have a single mission: that is, to provide decent, safe, and affordable housing.

The dream doesn't lie in victimization or blame; it lies in hard work, determination and a good education.