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Quotes About Corruption

Various are the pleas and arguments which men of corrupt minds frequently urge against yielding obedience to the just and holy commands of God.
~ George Whitefield
One of the great virtues of Confucianism was its suppleness. Western political thought tended to be rather brittle; as soon as the state became corrupt, everything ceased to make sense. Confucianism always retained its equilibrium, like a cork that could float as well in spring water or raw sewage.
~ Neal Stephenson
Judge Fang got to eat this way only when someone really important was trying to taint him, and though he had never knowingly allowed his judicial judgment to be swayed, he did enjoy the chow.
~ Neal Stephenson
For one of the toxic things about Lineages was that rich avout could get not-so-rich ones to do things for them in exchange for better food, better drink, and better lodging.
~ Neal Stephenson
This Land was made wrong. All of his efforts to make it right only spread the wrongness about in new ways. It is left to souls like me to decide what to do about it; and though I cannot see all the answers, I can guess that adding more wrongness will not help matters.
~ Neal Stephenson
GENERAL FRINK: Madame Chairwoman, if I may? ATKINSON: Proceed. FRINK: With all due respect, Senator Villesca, it's not like taxpayer money has never been used to hire prostitutes before. I know you're aware of that.
~ Neal Stephenson
Narcolombia, just about everything is a capital offense
~ Neal Stephenson
SUMMER AND AUTUMN 1688 Therefore it happeneth commonly, that such as value themselves by the greatness of their wealth, adventure on crimes, upon hope of escaping punishment, by corrupting public justice, or obtaining pardon by money, or other rewards. —HOBBES, Leviathan
~ Neal Stephenson
It tells you that evil is a virus!
~ Neal Stephenson
Government is the perfect portrayer of the accuracy of the axiom that if you lie big enough, long enough, the lie becomes the "truth.
~ Neale Donald Walsch
Complaints about the demise of society and the "youth of today" also tend to be timeless. Consider this pronouncement, inscribed on an Assyrian tablet circa 2800 B.C.: Our earth is degenerate these days . . . bribery and corruption abound, children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and the end of the world is evidently approaching.
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
Consider this pronouncement, inscribed on an Assyrian tablet circa 2800 B.C.: Our earth is degenerate these days . . . bribery and corruption abound, children no longer obey their parents, every man wants to write a book, and the end of the world is evidently approaching.
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
Noise" includes any unwanted signal that contaminates the target of measurement.
~ Neil deGrasse Tyson
Hoje é muito difícil não ser canalha. Todas as pressões trabalham para o nosso aviltamento pessoal e coletivo.
~ Nelson Rodrigues
Since de Soto published The Mystery of Capital, revolutions in countries like Tunisia and Egypt have provided compelling evidence in support of his approach. He sees the 'Arab Spring' primarily as a revolt by frustrated would-be entrepreneurs against corrupt, rent-seeking regimes that preyed on their efforts to accumulate capital. The prime example is the story of the twenty-six-year-old
~ Niall Ferguson
British Empire acted as an agency for imposing free markets, the rule of law, investor protection and relatively incorrupt government on roughly a quarter of the world.
~ Niall Ferguson
Los gobernantes arbitrarios y corruptos tienen una enorme responsabilidad por este fracaso económico.36 Buena parte del dinero que llovió sobre los países pobres ha sido simplemente filtrado y devuelto (con frecuencia hacia cuentas de bancos en Suiza), pues los gobernantes corruptos han atesorado sus mal obtenidas ganancias en el extranjero.
~ Niall Ferguson
The second hallmark of the stationary state was the ability of a corrupt and monopolistic elite to exploit the system of law and administration to their own advantage: In a country too, where, though the rich or the owners of large capitals enjoy a good deal of security, the
~ Niall Ferguson
Who killed Christianity in Europe? Was it, as (Max) Weber himself predicted, that the spirit of capitalism was bound to destroy the Protestant ethic parents, as materialism corrupted the original aestheticism of the godly?
~ Niall Ferguson
The best way to rob a bank is to own one.
~ Niall Ferguson
Meanwhile, as Francis Fukuyama has argued, the very legitimacy of democratic politics is being corroded because 'interest groups . . . are able to effectively buy politicians with campaign contributions and lobbying', a process that he dubs 'repatrimonialization
~ Niall Ferguson
Y aunque no hubiera sido así, resulta dudoso que las inyecciones de capital del tipo imaginado por diversos economistas estadounidenses como Walt Rostow* fueran la solución a los problemas de la mayoría de las economías africanas, asiáticas y latinoamericanas. Una buena parte de la ayuda iba a parar a los países pobres, pero la mayor parte de ella se perdía o era robada.
~ Niall Ferguson
between economic freedom and government regulation? Chapter 2 will address these issues. The specific question I ask is how far very complex regulation has become the disease of which it purports to be the cure, distorting and corrupting both the political and the economic process.
~ Niall Ferguson
For a Monarchy readily becomes a Tyranny, an Aristocracy an Oligarchy, while a Democracy tends to degenerate into Anarchy. So that if the founder of a State should establish any one of these three forms of Government, he establishes it for a short time only, since no precaution he may take can prevent it from sliding into its contrary, by reason of the close resemblance which, in this case, the virtue bears to the vice.
~ Niccolo Machiavelli