Quotes about committee
page 4

“We are beginning to see that government by majorities means abandoning all the affairs of the country to the tide-waiters who make up the majorities in the House and in election committees; to those, in a word, who have no pinion of their own.”

Peter Kropotkin book The Conquest of Bread

Source: The Conquest of Bread (1892), Ch. 3 : Anarchist Communism, p. 81

Making love, Housing, Country

“If Parliament, public and press have now braced themselves to accept the plain and obvious truth that Cabinet discussions are interesting, vigorous and sometimes revolve around alternative policies, why should even the disclosure of an outline of the points at issue—while these discussions are in progress—be guarded against so relentlessly and so ineffectively from any risk of publicity? … Secrecy in decision-making does not occur by accident or default. It is because knowledge is power, and no government willingly gives up power to the Commons, the public, or anyone else. Open government would disclose more about the processes of decision-making, including the workings of the Cabinet committee system, reveal the roles of officials and advisers, and involve both admitting and encouraging pressure upon ministers. … If parliamentary democracy is, as I believe, a unique system of government, partly because it allows us to learn from our own mistakes in time to correct them, the raw material of that experience must be made available in time to use it for that purpose.”

Tony Benn (1925–2014) British Labour Party politician

Speech to a Press Gallery luncheon (14 February 1977), quoted in The Times (15 February 1977), p. 4
1970s

Truth, Making love, Democracy, Knowledge

“The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.... Certainly it would be difficult to imagine any committee of relatively young men, of thirty or thirty-five, showing the unbroken childishness, ignorance and lack of humor of the Supreme Court of the United States. The average age of the learned justices must be well beyond sixty, and all of them are supposed to be of finished and mellowed sagacity. Yet their knowledge of the most ordinary principles of justice often turns out to be extremely meager, and when they spread themselves grandly upon a great case their reasoning powers are usually found to be precisely equal to those of a respectable Pullman conductor.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

"Advice to Young Men" in Prejudices: Third Series (1922).
1920s, Prejudices, Third Series (1922)

Wisdom, Men, Age, Justice

“I’m not here to tell you my troubles with the administration or — I’m happy to be on the program, because I’ve already read 96 percent of the book, and we’re investigating, but for me to start telling you what might be available and what the problems are and what the challenges are going to be, I think, is very unprofessional in an investigation of this seriousness… It’s under investigation and consideration right now. But the importance of this discussion today is critical not only to the committees — there are four committees, and how they relate to each other will come forward very shortly — but there is also the question of the media, the Fourth Estate, the press. This is now public information that, it seems to me, shouldn’t be great breaking news over a progressive news program, but this has to be investigated by the rest of the media, unless they consider this to be irrelevant or too late, or whatever reasons are, that they’re coerced or afraid themselves, too timid… I consider the relationship of the committees on the subject matter, the responsibility of the media, and the American people being brought into this discussion as the citizens, that in a representative democracy, that’s what all of us are supposed to be working on.”

John Conyers (1929–2019) American politician from Michigan

After Ron Suskind Reveals Bush Admin Ordered Iraq-9/11 Fakery, House Judiciary Chair John Conyers Opens Congressional Probe https://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/14/after_ron_suskind_reveals_bush_admin, DemocracyNow! (14 August 2008)

Happiness, People, Books, Democracy

“Today the Committee will consider the WikiLeaks matter. The case is complicated, obviously. It involves possible questions of national security, and no doubt important subjects of international relations, and war and peace. But fundamentally, the Brennan observation should be instructive.”

John Conyers (1929–2019) American politician from Michigan

U.S. Congress House Hearing: Espionage Act and the Legal and Constitutional Issue Raised by Wikileaks. Hearing Before the Committee on the Judiciary House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, Second Session, https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-111hhrg63081/html/CHRG-111hhrg63081.htm (16 December 2010). CSpan recording https://www.c-span.org/video/?297115-1/wikileaksthe-espionage-act-constitution

War, Peace, Question, Relation ships

“Given the current situation, I cannot be included in opinion polls on the presidential election. As Kaohsiung mayor, I shoulder the expectations of Kaohsiung residents. If (KMT) party headquarters or the Central Standing Committee needs Han Kuo-yu in some way to make all kinds of arrangements, including opinion polls, I will respect their decision.”

Han Kuo-yu (1957) Taiwanese political figure

Han Kuo-yu (2019) cited in " Han agrees to respect KMT mechanism http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2019/05/01/2003714338" on Taipei Times, 1 May 2019. <br class="br">2019

Making love, Way, Decision

“Financial Services is one of just four exclusive committees in the House. It oversees big banks, lending, & the financial sector….”

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (1989) American politician

Twitter post, https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1085380063112105984 (15 January 2019) <br class="br">Twitter Quotes (2019), January 2019

Housing

“Our faith is strong that long after Senator Eastland and his present subcommittee are gone, long after segregation has lost its final battle in the South, long after all that was known as McCarthyism is a dim, unwelcome memory, long after the last Congressional committee has learned that it cannot tamper successfully with a free press, The New York Times will be speaking for (those) who make it, and only for (those) who make it, and speaking, without fear or favor, the truth as it sees it.”

James Eastland (1904–1986) American politician

"The Voice of a Free Press" https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2015/01/08/1956-the-voice-of-a-free-press/, The New York Times (January 15, 1956) <br class="br">About him

Truth, Fear, Making love, Faith

“I would have this to say – that our primary responsibility is to find the right opportunity and create the necessary conditions for us to put into effect the local legislation, before we need a committee to ensure the legislation is being effectively enforced.”

Carrie Lam (1957) Chief Executive of Hong Kong

Carrie Lam (2018) cited in " Macau to form national security commission chaired by city’s leader as a ‘preventative measure’ https://www.hongkongfp.com/2018/08/28/macau-form-national-security-commission-chaired-citys-leader-preventative-measure/" on Hong Kong Free Press, 28 August 2018

“The national government will be formed if not today some time later. You and other members of the Working Committee and Maulana Azad as its President and Mahatma Gandhi as controller have given the best possible lead and placed the country on a sound footing in every respect. The truth about the Congress position and the Muslim League claim has been made known not only to Britain but also to the whole world.”

Rajendra Prasad (1884–1963) Indian political leader

T Prakasam in letter dated 20 July 1945, in: p. 5
Muslim League had demanded for partition of the country.
Dr. Rajendra Prasad: Correspondence and Select Documents : Presidency Period

Truth, World, Time, Country

“In the Congress hierarchy, he enjoyed an enviable position being a member of the Congress Working Committee for many years.”

Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed (1905–1977) the fifth President of India and a politician

Source: Great Muslims of undivided India, P.100

“Within four or five hours of taking over the responsibility of the Congress President, Rajiv Gandhi announced the formation of the new Working Committee and the Parliamentary Board. It is proved by this that Rajiv Gandhi believed in taking quick decisions.”

Rajiv Gandhi (1944–1991) sixth Prime Minister of India

In Meena Agrawal, in “Rajiv Gandhi”, p. 76

Decision

“Voroshilov was a striking figure, with a great deal of influence among the workers, so that the degree of influence of the committee on the workers and its success as regards recruitment depended primarily on him.”

Kliment Voroshilov (1881–1969) Soviet military commander

Leopold H. Haimson

Success, Dependency

“We've got to eradicate anti-Semitism, anti-Jewish racism in all its forms [and] for us to address that now, I think he needs to take a personal lead on examining those cases and if necessary, recommend it to our NEC (National Executive Committee) what needs to be done.”

Tom Watson (Labour politician) (1967) British politician

Jeremy Corbyn must take 'personal lead' on anti-Semitism - Watson https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47348617 BBC News (24 February 2019) <br class="br">2019

Thinking, Personality

“But Parz was better than nothing: it offered stability, regulation, a framework to live in. People gripe about their tithes—and nobody’s going to pretend that the Committee gets it right all the time—but most of us would prefer taxes to living wild. With all respect to you, my friend.”

Stephen Baxter book Flux

He bit into his cake. “And that’s still true today; as true as it ever was.”

Flux (novel) (1993), Chapter 20 (p. 497)

People, Time

“Stupidity, yes, but not unilateral stupidity. Something this screwed up had to have taken a committee.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991), Chapter 10 (p. 411)

Stupidity

“Historically, the errors committed by a truly revolutionary movement are infinitely more fruitful than the infallibility of the cleverest Central Committee.”

Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary

Leninism or Marxism? (1904)

Error

“But here is the "ego" of the Russian revolutionary again! Pirouetting on its head, it once more proclaims itself to be the all-powerful director of history — this time with the title of His Excellency the Central Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Russia.”

Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary

Leninism or Marxism? (1904)

History, Time

“If we assume the viewpoint claimed as his own by Lenin and we fear the influence of intellectuals in the proletarian movement, we can conceive of no greater danger to the Russian party than Lenin's plan of organization. Nothing will more surely enslave a young labor movement to an intellectual elite hungry for power than this bureaucratic straightjacket, which will immobilize the movement and turn it into an automaton manipulated by a Central Committee. On the other hand there is no more effective guarantee against opportunist intrigue and personal ambition than the independent revolutionary action of the proletariat, as a result of which the workers acquire the sense of political responsibility and self-reliance.”

Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) Polish Marxist theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary

Leninism or Marxism? (1904)

Fear, Sense, Personality, Self-confidence

“Our country is suffering from the lack of food. We don't have rice for the military. Our country is in a state of anarchy because of the dysfunctional food rationing system. The administration department is responsible for this mess, as well as the Party officials. The Party's Central Committee members have failed their duty in generating a revolutionary spirit, diminishing the Party's effectiveness. We must solve the food problem according to socialist principles, and we must not rely on individuals. If we let the people solve the problem on their own, only merchants and markets will prosper. Then, selfishness will rule our society and destroy our system of true equality.”

Kim Jong-il (1941–2011) General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea

Reported speech at Kim Il Sung University in December 1996, as quoted in Exit Emperor Kim Jong-il (2012) by John H. Cha and K. J. Sohn. Domestic collections of Kim's works do not confirm the speech or the wording, but an April 1996 speech to the Central Committee began with similar observations, and a "state of anarchy" arising from privatization in former socialist countries was a theme in earlier works.
1990s

People, Food, Problem, Suffering

“All creative thought and creative action is strictly personal. A committee, any collective, cannot think. It cannot act creatively. It can only act destructively. It can exercise brute force.”

Leonard E. Read (1898–1983) American academic

Leonard Read Journals, November 4, 1951 https://history.fee.org/leonard-read-journal/1951/leonard-e-read-journal-november-1951/

Exercises, Thinking, Personality

“It is incredible, but not surprising, that the Democrats would try to remove God from committee proceedings in one of their first acts in the majority. They really have become the party of Karl Marx.”

Elizabeth Cheney (1966) American lawyer

As quoted in "House democrats to strike 'so help me God' from oath", Breitbart News (29 January 2019)

God

Quotes about committee page 4

Quotes about committee
page 4