May the sun never set on American baseball.
Harry S. TrumanRead
Secrecy and a free, democratic government don't mix.
Interpretation
Secrecy undermines the principles of transparency and accountability in a democratic government.
Harry S. Truman's quote highlights the fundamental conflict between secrecy and the ideals of a free and democratic government. In a democracy, transparency is vital for fostering trust between the government and its citizens, ensuring that officials are held accountable for their actions. Secrecy, on the other hand, can lead to abuses of power and erosion of the public's right to know, which is essential for a healthy democratic society.
In practice
During a town hall meeting discussing government transparency initiatives.
May the sun never set on American baseball.
Having found the bomb we have used it. We have used it against those who attacked us without warning at Pearl Harbor, against those who have starved and beaten and executed American prisoners of war, against those who have abandoned all pretense of obeying international laws of warfare. We have used it in order to shorten the agony of war, in order to save the lives of thousands and thousands of young Americans.
Herbert Hoover once ran on the slogan, 'Two cars in every garage'. Apparently, the Republican candidate this year is running on the slogan, 'Two families in every garage'.
The only things worth learning are the things you learn after you know it all.
I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.
I would rather have peace in the world than be President.
I get really, really concerned when I see somebody, taking $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, will not release what they're actually saying. That's concerning.
If the Arab Spring was a large nail in the coffin of al-Qaeda's ideology, the death of bin Laden was an equally large nail in the coffin of al-Qaeda the organization.
From horrific incidents of police brutality and complicity in indiscriminate attacks by triads on citizens to arbitrary mass arrests and the banning of demonstrations, the government has employed nearly every weapon in its war chest to intimidate Hong Kongers into silence and to suppress their popular struggle for democracy and freedom.
We hadn't heard anything about registering to vote because when you see this flat land in here, when the people would get out of the fields, if they had a radio, they'd be too tired to play it. So we didn't know what was going on in the rest of the state, even, much less in other places.
If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.
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