Quotes About Corruption

Money talks; there's no question about it.

There are some arenas so corrupt that the only clean acts possible are nihilistic.

You have to burn beliefs when they become convenient lies solely for the purpose of gaining and holding power.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

Bribing was a subtle and even gracious art. It was considered in better taste to bribe indirectly. For example, one could offer a generous donation to a 'charitable' cause, chaired by the official's wife; or sell him a piece of property at a fraction of its actual value; or buy something from him (e.g. a painting) for a sum far in excess of its value.

Human beings need to be made happier, but they do not need to be redeemed, for they are not degraded beings, not immaterial souls imprisoned in material bodies, not innocent souls corrupted by original sin.

Racial polarization stemming from our separateness has corrupted our politics, permitting leaders who ignore the interests of white working-class voters to mobilize them with racial appeals. Whites may support political candidates who pander to their sense of racial entitlement while advocating policies that perpetuate the inferior economic opportunities that some whites may face.

Proud men are the devil's pipes, and flatterers the musicians to blow these pipes.

You can steal in this country, you can rape and murder, you can bribe public officials, you can pollute the morals of the young, you can burn your place of business down for the insurance money, you can do almost anything you want, and if you act with just a little caution and common sense you'll never even be indicted. But if you don't pay your income tax, Grofield, you will go to jail.

it is impossible to cure a political prostitute from whoring'.

South Carolina, the Tweed Ring, the New York City riots, and Santo Domingo fanned the fire of liberal rebellion; the only source of liberal outrage not yet prominent in the newspapers was the ubiquitous corruption of the Grant administration itself, which was as yet largely known only to insiders.

Materialists do not love matter. They have no sense of its "earnest expectation" (Romans 8:19), and do not sympathize with its "bondage of corruption" (Romans 8:21).

The whole point of crying was to quit before you cornied it up. The whole point of grief itself was to cut it out while it was still honest, while it still meant something. Because the thing was so easily corrupted: let yourself go and you started embellishing your own sobs, or you started telling about the Wheelers with a sad, sentimental smile and saying Frank was courageous, and then what the hell did you have?

The whole point of crying was to quit before you cornied it up. The whole point of grief itself was to cut it out while it was still honest, while it still meant something. Because the thing was so easily corrupted, let yourself go and you started embellishing your own sobs.

He found it so easy and so pleasant to cry that he didn't try to stop for a while, until he realized he was forcing his sobs a little, exaggerating their depth with unnecessary shudders. … The whole point of crying is to quit before you coined it up. The whole point of grief itself was to cut it out while it was still honest, while it still meant something. Because the thing was so easily corrupted

This is politics. People in power never have to play by the same rules.

One thing that never changed among humans: there were always those who wanted to get something for nothing. It was what kept hell in business.

Corruption is like a lily—brush against it, however lightly, and some of the pollen smears on you. Therefore choose your friends and your employers wisely.

It was an unhappy truth, he told himself, that nearly all people in the world behave badly when there is something really big at stake. Money is the thing they fight over most.

No doubt, what with all that graft and corruption filling your schedule.

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

Power corrupts—that has been said and written so often that it has become a cliché. But what is never said, but is just as true, is that power reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, he must conceal those traits that might make others reluctant to give it to him, that might even make them refuse to give it to him. Once the man has power, it is no longer necessary for him to hide those traits. In

The city governments of the United States are the worst in Christiandom - the most expensive, the most inefficient, and the most corrupt.

He's an honest politician--he stays bought.