Public Choice Quotes

#1. Together, the property rights and public choice schools show only that, if you start by assuming a purely individualistic model of human behavior and treat politics as if it were a pale imitation of the market, democracy will, indeed, make no sense.

Paul Starr

#2. Obama, startled that components of government behave as interest groups, seems utterly unfamiliar with public choice theory. It demystifies and de-romanticizes politics by applying economic analysis - how incentives influence behavior - to government.

George Will

#3. If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy of the favorable regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to Whom it is addressed, it must be that in which those who join in it are guided only be their free choice-by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences ...

James Madison

#4. That is why conservatives are attacking the infrastructure of public education in the country. They have no choice. They are up against an infrastructure full of nurturers, and they don't like it one bit - and they shouldn't like it one bit.

George Lakoff

#5. that the city be governed by a choice of respectable members of the community who would promise not to give themselves airs or betray the public trust at every turn, was instantly the subject of music-hall jokes all over the city.

Terry Pratchett

#6. I think the important thing is that there be plenty of newspapers, with plenty of different people controlling them, so that there are a variety of viewpoints, so there is a choice for the public. This is the freedom of the press that is needed.

Rupert Murdoch

#7. I do not think you can push public expenditure significantly above 60 per cent and maintain the values of a plural society with adequate freedom of choice. We are here close to one of the frontiers of social democracy

Roy Jenkins

#8. I don't think you have to make this choice about being on one side or the other side. My feeling is that when we are committed to growing the economy and making sure that our public employees have a place at the table through collective bargaining, everyone wins.

Mary Burke

#9. I believe there ought to be school choice, so that parents can choose within the public school system.

William H. Gray

#10. People have to make journeys, what we want is people to have alternatives in public transport so that they can make a choice about the sort of way in which they're going to travel.

Theresa May

#11. It was a shame I couldn't go public with my ability. Girls found immortality hot, right? Slap on a pair of fangs and add some glitter and I could probably hook up with my choice of rabid Twilight fangirls.

Jus Accardo

#12. I said it was a mistake. It wasn't the best choice. But all my emails have been turned over to the public.

Hillary Clinton

#13. President Obama was right to ban torture, but the public must understand that this decision carries a potential cost in lost information. That's what makes it a moral choice.

David Ignatius

#14. We just moved out of L.A. because I didn't want to be raising my girls in the city. They're in public school now and they're in a normal situation. We're sort of settling into that. It's just a choice.

Jennie Garth

#15. It is more important to engage the public positively with choice and competition to everyone than to be directed into a benefit for a minority.

Andrew Lansley

#16. I think it's totally up to the individual if they'd like a private life or if they'd like to be in the public eye - it's a choice you can make.

Jade Jagger

#17. Do not suffer your good nature [ ... ] to say yes when you ought to say no; remember that it is a public not a private cause that is to be injured or benefitted by your choice

George Washington

#18. Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

#19. My mantra about everything that has to do with public policy is: identify and reject the false choice.

Kamala Harris

#20. All across America public libraries were, and are, being shut down, while prisons-with libraries-were, and are, being built. This has been a choice the American public has been making for over thirty years.

Avi Steinberg

#21. You know, if it's a three-way race, the public has more choice than if it's a two-way race, and has more choice in a two-way race than a one-way race.

Michael Bloomberg

#22. All I'm asking for is the law that's been on the books for the last 33 years, no public funding for abortion. We are both saying the same thing, pro-life, pro-choice. Let's find the language that works for both of us so we can pass health care.

Bart Stupak

#23. I worry about how aggressive and vicious our discourse has become. I don't think all is lost, however. I believe that there are ways that we can get our public debates back on track, because civility and manners are a matter of choice.

Dana Perino

#24. This is a government takeover of our healthcare system. It is the government basically running the entire healthcare system, turning large insurers into de facto public utilities, depriving people of choice, depriving people of options, raising people's prices, raising taxes when we need new jobs.

Paul Ryan

#25. There was at all events one advantage in the choice of this day to my birth; my birthday throughout the whole of my childhood was a day of public rejoicing.

Friedrich Nietzsche

#26. Electing pro-choice Republican women can help foster a discussion that reflects the full spectrum of views and can lead to a more balanced and responsible public dialogue.

Linda Lingle

#27. Greater personal choice, individually tailored services, stronger local accountability, greater efficiency - these are all central to the new direction of travel we have set for our public services.

John Hutton

#28. Since the end of human action, as distinct from the end products of fabrication, can never be reliably predicted, the means used to achieve political goals are more often than not of greater relevance to the future world than the intended goals.

Hannah Arendt

#29. ... gay marriage rights coming and going, always being an issue for the voting public when it should be an individual's private choice.

G.A. Hauser

#30. The choice lies between property on the one hand and slavery, public or private, on the other. There is no third issue.

Hilaire Belloc

#31. Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiased by considerations not connected with the public good.

Alexander Hamilton

#32. Digital networks are increasing the fluidity of all media. The old choice between one-way public media (like books and movies) and two-way private media (like the phone) has now expanded to include a third option: two-way media that operates on a scale from private to public.

Clay Shirky

#33. Being in the public eye, there will always be negatives. Those dark aspects will always be there and, so too, those things that will try and tear you down, but I have made the choice not to engage with them. I'm not going to let them affect me or destroy me.

Rain Phoenix

#34. With consumers having ever more choice, corporations must invest more and more in courting public opinion.

Noreena Hertz

#35. The real issue for the public is to figure out which narrative do we want. We can have a bigger government, if that's the public's choice. It'll just require higher taxes on every American. Do you want that, or do you want smaller government, smaller taxes?

Glenn Hubbard

#36. In 2006, the number of children in targeted school choice programs nationwide will reach six digits for the first time, representing a 40 percent increase in the number of children in targeted school choice programs and an even bigger increase in the amount of public funding.

Clint Bolick

#37. If you make the choice to serve the public, public service, then serve the public, not yourself.

Jack Abramoff

#38. Let's focus on how we can take someone who is being poorly educated in an American public school and how they are poorly trained for a job, and put in place those opportunities for them to get that education, give their parents choice in education, make it real for them.

Michael Steele

#39. Governors of both political parties face a stark choice between unpopular tax increases and drastic cuts in Medicaid, education, public safety and other essential services.

Bill Delahunt

#40. Industries and businesses that must operate in the marketplace of free choice know that they must change, they must adapt, they must accommodate to changes in public attitudes-or they will surely die.

William Ruckelshaus

#41. The public life of every political figure is a continual struggle to rescue an element of choice from the pressure of circumstance.

Henry A. Kissinger

#42. No one will be forced to take the public option. The word option means choice.

Valerie Jarrett

#43. Open your hearts to the Lord. The Lord is waiting for you and the Church will welcome you if your willingness to serve good is as clear and public as your choice to serve evil was.

Pope Francis

#44. Winning an award is a great feeling but winning the Vodafone Crossword Popular Choice Award is particularly exhilarating because it is based upon public voting. I find it a strange quirk of fate that Chanakya's Chant, a political tale, should end up winning an election!

Ashwin Sanghi

#45. A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people's evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.

Natsuo Kirino

#46. The lanes and streets of the city being set out, the choice of sites for the convenience and use of the state remains to be decided on; for sacred edifices, for the forum, and for other public buildings.

Vitruvius

#47. The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of child care payments.

Tony Abbott

#48. John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as running mate is the towering example of his poor judgment. Palin's ignorance of public affairs is monumental.

Edgar Bronfman, Sr.

#49. I definitely think there is a shift happening right now in terms of visibility, but there's still a choice you make as a public figure on what to do or how to present your sexuality.

Evan Rachel Wood