When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators. — P.J. O’ Rourke
Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation. — Henry Kissinger
Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt. — Graham Greene
He that is already corrupt is naturally suspicious, and he that becomes suspicious will quickly become corrupt. — Samuel Johnson
The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt, too. — Oscar Levant
I usually accept bribes from both sides so that tainted money can never influence my decision. — Francis Bacon
Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few. — George Bernard Shaw
By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over. — Gore Vidal,
“In any country, corruption tends to increase when more respectable means of social advancement break down.” ― Katherine Boo
“Extremely disappointed that corruption may have reached such a level in Mexico.” ― Barry McCaffrey
“Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruption.” ― Jonathan Swift
“The only way to escape the corruptible effect of praise is to go on working.” ― Albert Einstein
“If we tackle corruption, no child would sleep hungry, there would be no injustice, every child would be in school.” ― Strive Masiyiwa
“Through transparency we expose corruption, but then there is no action taken against the corrupt.” ― Aruna Roy
“Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.” ― Thomas Jefferson
“The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.” ― Georges Bernanos
“Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country.” ― Karl Kraus
“Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we’re tired of hearing promises that we know they’ll never keep.” ― Ray Davies
“Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase.” ― Charles Caleb Colton
“Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective.” ― Pratibha Patil
“Police are inevitably corrupted. … Police always observe that criminals prosper. It takes a pretty dull policeman to miss the fact that the position of authority is the most prosperous criminal position available.” ― Frank Herbert
“It is not the young people that degenerate; they are not spoiled till those of mature age are already sunk into corruption.” — Montesquieu
“Let every attempt of corrupting you be an unwelcome opportunity, to be honest. Don’t waste it. – Corruption as a Challenge.” ― Lamine Pearlheart
“Corruption ultimately guilts the corrupt, and it hardens the innocent who suffer as a result of it. It isn’t the young who corrupt the old, rather it’s the inverse. The aim of the old should be to ensure that the young grow up incorruptible.” ― Justin K. McFarlane Beau
“It is the duty of youths to war against indiscipline and corruption because they are the leaders of tomorrow.” ― Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha
“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
“Without strong watchdog institutions, impunity becomes the very foundation upon which systems of corruption are built. And if impunity is not demolished, all efforts to bring an end to corruption are in vain.” — Rigoberta Menchú
“There are still those of us who work to overcome corruption and believe it to be possible.” — Padmé Amidala
“The hand that pockets the corrupt coin places it in the collection plate seeking absolution.” ― Stewart Stafford
“Here is a man whose life and actions the world has already condemned – yet whose enormous fortune… has already brought him acquittal!” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
“He did not care for the lying at first. He hated it. Then later he had come to like it. It was part of being an insider but it was a very corrupting business.” ― Ernest Hemingway
“Procrastination is also a subtle act of corruption—it corrupts valuable time.” ― Dr. Amit Abraham
“When two brothers are busy fighting, an evil man can easily attack and rob their poor mother. Mankind should always stay united, standing shoulder to shoulder so evil can never cheat and divide them.” ― Suzy Kassem
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
“A just law is crafted with thoughtful communication and factual debate, a corrupt one is forged to limit such things.” ― C.A.A. Savastano
“Governance is corrupted by politicians aspiring to become celebrities and celebrities assuming credence in governing.” ― H. Melvin James
“When self-interest supersedes public service, society collapses under the weight of corruption.” ― Ken Poirot
“A corrupt leader is leading you only because there are more corrupted people to vote for him.” ― Wangnao
“And the so-called ‘political process’ is a fraud: Our elected officials, like our bureaucratic functionaries, like even our judges, are largely the indentured servants of the commercial interests.” ― Edward Abbey
“Look at the orators in our republics; as long as they are poor, both state and people can only praise their uprightness; but once they are fattened on the public funds, they conceive a hatred for justice, plan intrigues against the people and attack the democracy.” ― Aristophanes
“To survive in a corrupt country, you need to be the son of a king or be king yourself.” ― Bangambiki Habyarimana
“As long as politics is the shadow of big business, the attenuation of the shadow will not change the substance.” ― John Dewey
“Pick a leader who is strong and confident, yet humble. Intelligent, but not sly. A leader who encourages diversity, not racism. One who understands the needs of the farmer, the teacher, the welder, the doctor, and the environmentalist — not only the banker, the oil tycoon, the weapons developer, or the insurance and pharmaceutical lobbyist.” ― Suzy Kassem
“You don’t necessarily need atomic bombs to destroy a nation. Politicians who value their pockets than the life of citizens always do that every day.” ― Israelmore Ayivor
“To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.” ― G. Edward Griffin
“People’s indifference is the best breeding ground for corruption to grow.” — Delia Ferreira
“Corruption is a cancer, a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity.” — Joe Biden
“To curb corruption, one must be courageous to confront and complain against the corrupt.” ― Amit Kalantri
“Beware of your contribution to the growing banality of evil lest you yourself become a cog in the machinery of terror.” ― Heather Marsh
“All the things of the wild have their proper uses. Only misuse makes them evil.” ― Ellis Peters
“Merely by living, man becomes degraded and loses in purity what he gains in power. However clear a spring may be, when it becomes a river it cannot help being polluted by mud and slime.” ― Maurice Druon
“It is true that nobody is above the law, but power can make somebody invisible.” ― Toba Beta
“Power in the hands of the reformer is no less potentially corrupting than in the hands of the oppressor.” ― Derrick Bell
“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.” ― Ayn Rand
“It is not power that corrupts, but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it, and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
“If you were to ask why you would be told that the banks are encouraged by the government to make loans available for cars, but loans for houses not so easily available.”
“Have you ever wondered why it is that all we seemed to have learned from you is how to corrupt our societies and how to be tyrants? You will have to accept that this is mostly your fault.”
“Where oranges have been laid to rust upon the green...”
“There in the holy mill of murder the meanest of men may seek and find that part of himself, concealed beneath the corrupt, which shines forth brilliant and virtuous, worthy of honor before the gods. Do not despise war, my young friend, nor delude yourself that mercy and compassion are virtues superior to andreia, to manly valor.”
“But there was nothing dulce et decorum about the Dervish dead. Nothing of the dignity of unconquerable manhood. All was filthy corruption. Yet these were as brave men as ever walked the earth. ”
“Unless you can get the ear of a Senator, or a Congressman, or a Chief of a Bureau or Department, and persuade him to use his ‘influence’ in your behalf, you cannot get an employment of the most trivial nature in Washington.”
“My own corruption is violent, tumultuous, enticing, and entangling. As it conceives sin, it wars within me and against me.”
“Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.”
“The corruption of the heart of man is ... immoderate and boundless in its fury ... it is like fire pent up by God’s restraints, when as if it were let loose, it would set on fire the course of nature; and as the heart is now a sink of sin, so, if sin was not restrained, it would immediately turn the soul into a fiery oven, or a furnace of fire and brimstone.”
“Miraz weeded them out. Belisar and Uvilas were shot with arrows on a hunting party: by chance, it was pretended. All the great house of the Passarids he sent to fight giants on the northern frontier till one by one they fell.”
“The puritanical, conservative value system of America was stifling after the soldiers’ experience in Europe. At the same time, corruption at all levels of government was commonplace.”
“George: Godly money ripped from the golden teeth of the unfaithful, a pragmatic extension of the big dream.”
Laws are best explained, interpreted, and applied by those whose interest and abilities lie in perverting, confounding, and eluding them.
“Don’t worry. Everyone who left will come back. They’re just afraid of change.”
“The regime got scared because if these opponents had reached Tehran, they would have freed those who represented a real threat to the government…”
You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator.
“Taking a bribe, letting yourself be bought off, accepting flattery in exchange for some sort of loyalty, is sabotage. Refusing to confront an issue because if you keep quiet you’ll get a promotion or be made an elder or keep your job corrupts you down deep.”
“They were trying to take down a clan, the most ancient and efficient social organization known to man. Didn’t the Americans realize that for every leader they arrested there were dozens of brothers, cousins, sons, and nephews to take his place?”
“Even if the Habr Gidr were somehow crippled or destroyed, wouldn’t that just elevate the next most powerful clan? Or did the Americans expect Somalia to suddenly sprout full-fledged Jeffersonian democracy?”
“The idea used to be that terrible countries were terrible because good, decent, innocent people were being oppressed by evil, thuggish leaders. Somalia changed that. Here you have a country where just about everybody is caught up in hatred and fighting.”
“A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste.”
“He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn’t owe too much money.”
“I have my pipe line into headquarters, or I wouldn’t be here. I get them the way they happen, not the way you read them in the papers.”
“Being a copper I like to see the law win. I’d like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at Folsom, alongside of the poor little slum-bred hard guys that got knocked over on their first caper and never had a break since. That’s what I’d like. You and me both lived too long to think I’m likely to see it happen. Not in this town, not in any town half this size, in any part of this wide, green and beautiful U.S.A. We just don’t run our country that way.”
“He’s got friends in town, or he wouldn’t be what he is.”
“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”
“He doesn’t know what the truth means, so he does not even know how he lies. ”
“But whilst man takes delight in this honest and lawful pursuit of his wellbeing, it is to be apprehended that he may in the end lose the use of his sublimest faculties; and that whilst he is busied in improving all around him, he may at length degrade himself.”
“Slavery, as we shall afterwards show, dishonors labor; it introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind, and benumbs the activity of man.”
“The private citizen, who employs the most immoral practices to acquire power, can only act in a manner indirectly prejudicial to the public prosperity. But if the representative of the executive descends into the combat, the cares of government dwindle into second-rate importance, and the success of his election is his first concern. All laws and all the negotiations he undertakes are to him nothing more than electioneering schemes; places become the reward of services rendered, not to the nation, but to its chief; and the influence of the government, if not injurious to the country, is at least no longer beneficial to the community for which it was created.”
“Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.”
“The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.”
A small amount of power corrupts a small man absolutely. A little knowledge is dangerous to a little man. To a great man only great knowledge is dangerous. -- Leonard J. V. Compagno
Unlimited power corrupts the possessor; and this I know, that, where law ends, there tyranny begins. -- William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
Unlimited power corrupts the possessor. -- William Pitt
Power corrupts, and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. -- Vinton Cerf
I no longer give Power Point presentations, because I've come to believe that power corrupts, and Power Point corrupts absolutely. -- Vinton Cerf
Power corrupts, and obsolete power corrupts obsoletely. -- Ted Nelson
To assume all the powers is not good for anybody. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All those experiments have a bad ending. -- Rafael Correa
When power corrupts, poetry cleanses -- John F. Kennedy
If knowledge is power and power corrupt, does knowledge corrupt? -- James Moore
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? -- Harry Shearer
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?? -- George Deacon
It is not that power corrupts but that power is a magnet to the corruptible. -- Frank Herbert
Power corrupts, and there is nothing more corrupting than power exercised in secret. -- Daniel Schorr
“It is easy to fight power, when you have none, when you feel like the victim. The real battle begins when you start to have a taste of power. It takes an impossible character to stand by their principles till their last breath, rejecting the pressure of oppression, as well as the convenience of power.” ― Abhijit Naskar
“The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; but as the former was refined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. In the church as well as in the world, the persons who were placed in any public station rendered themselves considerable by their eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their dexterity in business; and while they concealed from others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual zeal.” ― Edward Gibbon
“He suddenly understood that power and pleasure were keenly entwined. One could succumb to such power. It corrupts the foolish and tests the resolute.” ― Linda Berdoll
“The masses, on admitting their own incapacity to govern themselves, have elected me as their head By doing so, they have clearly proclaimed their own inferiority and my superiority. In this great crowd of men, among whom I hardly find any who are my equals, I alone am capable of administering public affairs. The people need me; they cannot get along without my services, while I am sufficient unto myself. They must therefore obey me for their own good, and I, by deigning to command them, create their happiness and well-being." There is enough here to turn anyone's head and corrupt the heart and make one swell with pride, isn't there? That is how power and the habit of commanding become a source of aberration, both intellectual and moral, even for the most intelligent and most virtuous of men.” ― Mikhail Bakunin
“They tell you power corrupts. They never tell you how quickly.” ― Hank Green
“It is not easy to be the citizen of a Superpower, nor is it getting easier. I would feel isolated with my shame if I were not sure that I belong, among millions of Americans, to a perennial minority of the nation. The obstinate bleeding hearts who will never agree that might makes right and know if the end justifies the means, the end is worthless. Power corrupts, an old truism but why does it also make the powerful so stupid? Their power schemes become unstuck in time, at cruel cost to other; then the powerful put their stupid important heads together and invent the next similar schemes [written 1987].” ― Martha Gellhorn
“It is an ironic footnote on Peter Stuyvesant’s frenzy at the idea of surrender that he passed his last days, in the late 1660s and early 1670s, in peaceful contentment on his farm in Manhattan, not only unmolested but in friendship with Governor Nicolls. Shorn of power, Peter Stuyvesant was a happier and perhaps a wiser man.” ― Murray N. Rothbard
“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Superpowers corrupt… superbly.” ― Chris Dee
“He who is given power will inevitably become an oppressor and exploiter of society.” ― Mikhail Bakunin
“Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society are produced by the restraints which the necessary, but unequal, laws of property have imposed on the appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the possession of those objects that are coveted by many. Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude. In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose their force, and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to silence the voice of pity. From such motives almost every page of history has been stained with civil blood....” ― Edward Gibbon
“Knowledge is a dangerous thing. But ignorance is no protection.” ― Masha du Toit
“They ordered the extermination of all minds they couldn't control” ― Tupac Shakur
“Malcolm X and Edmund Burke shared an appreciation of this important insight, this painful truth--that the state wants men to be weak and timid, not strong and proud.” ― Thomas Stephen Szasz
“He always says that those who control the present can rewrite the past.” ― Anne Fortier,
“On the throne of the world, any delusion can become fact.” ― Gore Vidal
"There's only one man really responsible for those events - Yahya Khan. Both he and his advisers were so drunk with power and corruption they'd even forgotten the honor of the army." ~ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
"We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression." ~ Eric Hoffer
"Then there is the worst part of Christianity, which is awful: power, corruption, manipulation... But then again, these feature are ever present in any organization." ~ Bruce Kent
"No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power. ... The time has come to consider how we might bring about a separation, as complete as possible, between Science and Government in all countries. I call this the disestablishment of science, in the same sense in which the churches have been disestablished and have become independent of the state." ~ Jacob Bronowski
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country." ~ Abraham Lincoln
"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans." ~ William J. Clinton
"The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." ~ David Brin
"I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power." ~ Joe Eszterhas
"Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both." ~ John F. Kennedy
"Arbitrary power has seldom... been introduced in any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step." ~ Lord Chesterfield
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority." ~ Lord Acton
"It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression." ~ Eric Hoffer
"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." ~ George Orwell
"No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power." ~ Jacob Bronowski
"It is not power that corrupts but fear." ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
"The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." ~ James Madison
"Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few." ~ David Hume
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." ~ Frederick Douglass
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose." ~ Frederick Douglass
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." ~ Benjamin Franklin
"It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power." ~ David Brin
"Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!" ~ Pericles
"It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it." ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys." ~ P. J. O'Rourke
"Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law." ~ Louis D. Brandeis
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." ~ Lord Acton
"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back." ~ Carl Sagan
"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed." ~ Abraham Lincoln
"Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power." ~ George Bernard Shaw
"Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it." ~ Frank Herbert
"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power." ~ John Steinbeck
