Leadership Quote by William Weld

Weld’s line flatters government, but only conditionally: it earns nobility not by being powerful, efficient, or even popular, but by admitting something has gone wrong and then moving to fix it. That’s a shrewd political move from a politician who often sold himself as a reform-minded Republican: it recasts the most unpopular part of governing - intrusion, regulation, redistribution, accountability - as moral theater with a purpose.

The syntax does the work. “Never so noble” is comparative, not absolute; it concedes government is frequently ignoble, or at least morally compromised, until it turns toward “wrongs.” “Addressing” is carefully chosen, too. It suggests action without promising outcomes. Government can be noble in the attempt, even if the machinery is slow, partial, or messy. That’s a protective hedge that still sounds aspirational.

The subtext is a quiet argument against cynicism: if you think the state exists only to tax and police, you’ve mistaken its highest function. But it also contains an implicit critique of government when it’s busy preserving itself - pork, patronage, culture-war signaling, procedural gamesmanship. Nobility arrives when power is aimed outward, at harm.

Context matters: Weld came of age in the post-Watergate era, when “good government” meant ethics, transparency, and institutions trying to launder their legitimacy. The quote channels that sensibility: redemption through reform. It’s also a bipartisan lure. Everyone agrees there are “wrongs”; the fight is over which ones count, who caused them, and whether “addressing” means help, punishment, or both.