Quotes About Bribes

When Paris is asked to judge the three goddesses, says Jane Harrison in her wonderful book Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, it amounts to a male put-down of the Goddess. For here were the three major classical goddesses, the three aspects of the one Goddess who is manifested in these three modes, and here is Paris, a languid young man, judging them as though in an Atlantic City beauty contest! And they are vying for his vote by giving him bribes and promises.

When the dogs returned, the Senator gave them treats from his pocket, and Jun Do understood that in communism, you'd threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.

Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it by threats, persuasion, or bribes.

No bribes. Nothing that passes under the roof of a temple Or under the roof of the mouth, can appease heaven's anger Or deflect its aim.

Government in America no longer served the populace but rather had become a living, voracious being itself—it existed to serve the vast numbers of people who worked for it. And to ensure that the electorate never turned on it, it handed out entitlement payments—bribes, really—to a huge percentage of the population. Life in America had become an Ayn Rand novel.

It is an open secret that customs officers pay millions in bribes to secure the lucrative posting in the airport, cargo terminals or ports.

The use of oil as the medium of exchange for the Al Yamamah contracts made bribes easier to hide, allowed Saudi Arabia to bypass OPEC's restrictive quota guidelines and enabled the Saudi Ministry of Defence to continue to purchase weapons with no scrutiny.

It is never ok for politicians to abuse their power for self enrichment, and even for has-beens and also-rans there has to be some brand of justice so present and future presidents don't get lured into taking crafty, well disguised bribes pretending it's 'charity.'

These? Mat said, gesturing to his coat and shirt. I really have no idea. They were just down there. I'm completely baffled. He had been very pleased to learn that Seanchan guards-for all their stoic expressions and too-straight backs-responded to bribes like other people.

Who can wonder at the attractiveness... of the bar, for our ambitious young men, when the highest bribes of society are at the feet of the successful orator?

Knives,' muttered Calder, 'and threats, and bribes, and war?' Bayaz' eyes shone with the lamplight. 'Yes?' 'What kind of a fucking wizard are you?' 'The kind you obey.

In the final analysis, finding a way to do clean business and not to pay bribes actually improves your bottom line.

Businessmen such as Rockefeller preferred to think of themselves as victims of political extortion, not as initiators of bribes.

those who sought power were greedy, wanting gifts, and bribes, and willing to steal from the poor.

general amorality of the weapons business in their disdain for any kind of control over the arms trade, their dislike of attempts to promote peace, and their willingness to use bribes.

They say that it were great reproof to the king to take again what he has given, so that they will not suffer him to have his own good, nor land, nor forfeiture, nor any other good but they ask it from him, or else they take bribes of others to get it for him.

Numbers of men are getting richer and greater numbers are getting poorer. Alas, both classes have higher expectations these days. In Short, sir, there has been a leap in bribes.

I could be a lot happier. I could be the senator from Aerospace taking bribes, and be quite happy.

Talleyrand was notorious for taking bribes. But then he was endlessly practical. He liked to lecture the young foreign office clerks on the necessity of masturbating before coming to work, thus ensuring unclouded minds at least throughout the morning.

They had been corrupted by money, and he had been corrupted by sentiment. Sentiment was the more dangerous, because you couldn't name its price. A man open to bribes was to be relied upon below a certain figure, but sentiment might uncoil in the heart at a name, a photograph, even a smell remembered.

The cops watched me and the Georges and the other foreigners who worked the streets, and they knew exactly what we were doing. They reasoned, truly enough, that we caused no violent harm, and we were good for business in the black market that brought them bribes and other benefits. They took their cut from the drug and currency dealers. They left us alone. They left me alone.

The piratical publishers hire them to perform such tasks as stalking around the harbor for advance sheets coming from England, to come by through bribes or even theft.

For an extensive and fascinating discussion of the use and pitfalls of rewards, see Edward Deci, Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation (New York: Penguin, 1996); Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1999); Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead, 2009).

How is a magician to exist without books? Let someone explain that to me. It is like asking a politician to achieve high office without the benefit of bribes or patronage.