„The special harm attaching to prior restraint is that the government can keep materials from reaching the public, so there can be no accountability, no judgment by the people that the power to suppress was wrongly exercised.“

„This government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it,“

—  John Marshall fourth Chief Justice of the United States 1755 - 1835

17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 405
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)
Kontext: This government is acknowledged by all to be one of enumerated powers. The principle, that it can exercise only the powers granted to it, would seem too apparent to have required to be enforced by all those arguments which it enlightened friends, while it was depending before the people, found it necessary to urge. That principle is now universally admitted. But the question respecting the extent of the powers actually granted, is perpetually arising, and will probably continue to arise, as long as our system shall exist.

„Power can be very addictive. And it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power.“

—  George W. Bush 43rd President of the United States 1946

2010s, 2017, Interview with Matt Lauer (2017)

„I repeat that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people, and for the people all springs, and all must exist.“

—  Benjamin Disraeli British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister 1804 - 1881

Book VI, Chapter 7.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Vivian Grey (1826)

„The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.“

—  John Stuart Mill, kniha On Liberty

Zdroj: On Liberty (1859), Ch. 1: Introductory
Kontext: The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant.

„I've learned from others' lives… What works in a relationship of very public people is not making the relationship public — keeping it as personal as it can be.“

—  Salma Hayek Mexican-American actress and producer 1966

O interview (2003)
Kontext: I've learned from others' lives... What works in a relationship of very public people is not making the relationship public — keeping it as personal as it can be. It's the only way it is real. I am suspicious of those who have to let the world know how much they love each other. It's a little sad when you have to brag about how much you love someone. That kind of declaration doesn't always reflect the moment of truth between two people who care deeply for each other. When that truth is there, you don't need others to know it. And when somebody truly loves you, you don't even need him or her to be affectionate. Affection is fantastic, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's love — and the public display of affection is often just a show.

„Although it is beyond the reach of any human faculties, man has the power of turning his attention and love towards it.
Nothing can ever justify the assumption that any man, whoever he may be, has been deprived of this power.
It is a power which is only real in this world in so far as it is exercised. The sole condition for exercising it is consent.“

—  Simone Weil French philosopher, Christian mystic, and social activist 1909 - 1943

Draft for a Statement of Human Obligation (1943)
Kontext: There is a reality outside the world, that is to say, outside space and time, outside man's mental universe, outside any sphere whatsoever that is accessible to human faculties.
Corresponding to this reality, at the centre of the human heart, is the longing for an absolute good, a longing which is always there and is never appeased by any object in this world.
Another terrestrial manifestation of this reality lies in the absurd and insoluble contradictions which are always the terminus of human thought when it moves exclusively in this world.
Just as the reality of this world is the sole foundation of facts, so that other reality is the sole foundation of good.
That reality is the unique source of all the good that can exist in this world: that is to say, all beauty, all truth, all justice, all legitimacy, all order, and all human behaviour that is mindful of obligations.
Those minds whose attention and love are turned towards that reality are the sole intermediary through which good can descend from there and come among men.
Although it is beyond the reach of any human faculties, man has the power of turning his attention and love towards it.
Nothing can ever justify the assumption that any man, whoever he may be, has been deprived of this power.
It is a power which is only real in this world in so far as it is exercised. The sole condition for exercising it is consent.
This act of consent may be expressed, or it may not be, even tacitly; it may not be clearly conscious, although it has really taken place in the soul. Very often it is verbally expressed although it has not in fact taken place. But whether expressed or not, the one condition suffices: that it shall in fact have taken place.
To anyone who does actually consent to directing his attention and love beyond the world, towards the reality that exists outside the reach of all human faculties, it is given to succeed in doing so. In that case, sooner or later, there descends upon him a part of the good, which shines through him upon all that surrounds him.

„As usurpation is the exercise of power which another has a right to, so tyranny is the exercise of power beyond right, which nobody can have a right to…“

—  John Locke, kniha Two Treatises of Government

Second Treatise of Government, Ch. XVIII, sec. 199
Two Treatises of Government (1689)

„No matter what coercive powers of enforcement governments may assert, the peoples in country after country in all ages have demonstrated that Man was meant to be free but that this ideal can be realized only under the rule of law. And this must be a rule that places restraints on individuals and on governments alike. This is a delicate, a fragile, balance to maintain. It is fragile because it is sustained only by an ideal that requires each person in society, by an exercise of free will, to accept and abide the restraints of a structure of laws.“

—  Warren E. Burger Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986 1907 - 1995

Reported in The Episcopalian: Volume 138 (1973), p. 12.

„The government of the Union, then, … is, emphatically, and truly, a government of the people. In form and in substance it emanates from them. Its powers are granted by them, and are to be exercised directly on them, and for their benefit.“

—  John Marshall fourth Chief Justice of the United States 1755 - 1835

17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 405
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

„I still believe that, in the long run, the aggregate of the decisions of individual businessmen, exercising individual judgment in a free economy, even if often mistaken, is likely to do less harm than the centralized decisions of a Government; and certainly the harm is likely to be counteracted faster. As I said earlier in this debate, our economic medicine may be painful but it is fast and powerful because it can act freely.“

—  John James Cowperthwaite British colonial administrator 1915 - 2006

March 24, 1966, page 216.
Official Report of Proceedings of the Hong Kong Legislative Council

„The public pay for and elect the government and it is only by the people’s will that those in public office hold power. Public servants’ primary responsibility is to serve the people and we have a right to know what they are doing in our name and with our money. Public accountability does not end the day after an election.“

—  Heather Brooke American journalist 1970

Newsletter (UK) http://www.newsletter.co.uk/community/columnists/maurice-neill-upholding-our-right-to-accountability-1-3856967 "MAURICE NEILL: Upholding our right to accountability", 18 May 2012.
Attributed, In the Media

„It is still necessary to suppress the bourgeoisie and crush its resistance. This was particularly necessary for the Commune; and one of the reasons for its defeat was that it did not do this with sufficient determination. But the organ of suppression is now the majority of the population, and not the minority, as was always the case under slavery, serfdom and wage-slavery. And since the majority of the of the people itself suppresses its oppressors, a "special force" for suppression is no longer necessary. in this sense the state begins to wither away. Instead of the special institutions of a privileged minority.. the majority can directly fulfill all these functions, and the more the functions of state power devolve upon the people generally, the less need is there for the existence of this power.“

—  Vladimir Lenin Russian politician, led the October Revolution 1870 - 1924

3.2, Essential Works of Lenin (1966)
(1917)

„The incapacity for freedom can only arise from a want of moral and intellectual power; to elevate this power is the only way to counteract this want; but to do this presupposes the exercise of that power, and this exercise presupposes the freedom which awakens spontaneous activity.“

—  Wilhelm Von Humboldt German (Prussian) philosopher, government functionary, diplomat, and founder of the University of Berlin 1767 - 1835

Zdroj: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 16
Kontext: The incapacity for freedom can only arise from a want of moral and intellectual power; to elevate this power is the only way to counteract this want; but to do this presupposes the exercise of that power, and this exercise presupposes the freedom which awakens spontaneous activity. Only it is clear we cannot call it giving freedom, when fetters are unloosed which are not felt as such by him who wears them. But of no man on earth—however neglected by nature, and however degraded by circumstances—is this true of all the bonds which oppress and enthral him. Let us undo them one by one, as the feeling of freedom awakens in men’s hearts, and we shall hasten progress at every step. There may still be great difficulties in being able to recognize the symptoms of this awakening. But these do not lie in the theory so much as in its execution, which, it is evident, never admits of special rules, but in this case, as in every other, is the work of genius alone.

„Are democratic governments accountable to the people who elected them? And, critically, is the public in democratic countries responsible for the actions...?“

—  Arundhati Roy Indian novelist, essayist 1961

Arundhati Roy: Tide? Or Ivory Snow? Public Power in the Age of Empire, Speech, San Francisco, California https://www.democracynow.org/2004/8/23/public_power_in_the_age_of (16 August 2004)
Speeches

„Requiring governments to make all publicly held information and data available to people — thus giving citizens a powerful tool to expose corruption — is just one aspect of the accountability revolution that can be unleashed if the report’s recommendations are implemented in full.“

—  Tawakkol Karman Yemeni journalist, politician, human rights activist, and Nobel Peace Prize recipient 1979

2000s, Youth Q&A on the U.N. High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda Report (2009)

„Government clerics who enter the holy city of Ghom and its seminaries backed by money and not-so-hidden coercive powers of the state are a thorn in the side of independent clerics who are more interested in faith and morality than power. In the younger, more popular days of this theocracy the schism was not obvious. Now, with masses of people on the streets, crushed by the orders of the head government cleric, the rift is wide open. The grand ayatollahs can no longer keep quiet about rape and torture in jails in the name of Islam. Unlike government mullahs, these senior clerics get their support from the people, so they can never be far away from popular feelings.“

—  Reza Pahlavi Last crown prince of the former Imperial State of Iran 1960

As quoted by Mark Pitzke, 'Iran Is My True and Only Home' http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/iran-s-crown-prince-reza-pahlavi-iran-is-my-true-and-only-home-a-641984-2.html, August 12, 2009.
Interviews, 2009

„While science and technology play critical roles in sustaining modern civilization, they are not part of our culture in the sense that they are not commonly studied or well comprehended. Neither the potential nor the limitations of science are understood so that what can be achieved and what is beyond reach are not comprehended. The line between science and magic becomes blurred so that public judgments on technical issues can be erratic or badly flawed. It frequently appears that some people will believe almost anything. Thus judgments can be manipulated or warped by unscrupulous groups. Distortions or outright falsehoods can come to be accepted as fact.“

—  Henry Way Kendall American physicist 1926 - 1999

Varianta: [Henry Way Kendall, A distant light: scientists and public policy, Springer, 2000, 0387988335, 4]

„The rule is this: that wherever there is a decision of a Court of concurrent jurisdiction, the other Courts will adopt that as the basis of their decision, provided it can be appealed from. If it cannot be appealed from, then they will exercise their own judgment.“

—  Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet British lawyer and Tory politician 1783 - 1870

Leech v. North Staffordshire Railway Co. (1860), 29 L. J. M. C. 155.

„Journalists can help people by telling the truth, or by as much truth as they can find, and acting not as agents of governments, of power, but of people. That is real journalism. The rest is specious and false.“

—  John Pilger Australian journalist 1939