Robert Payne Quotes

Historically the first philosopher to enquire deeply into the nature of corruption in society was Ibn Khaldun (1322-1406), whose wandering life was largely spent in the northern littoral of Africa at a time when kingdoms and sultanates were crumbling.

Long before the empire had reached its greatest extent, the Romans were bored by it.

The second corruption of the state is oligarchy (oligos = few), in which the military elite is narrowed down to a few ruling families of immense wealth and prestige, who now openly flaunt their wealth and possessions.

The corrupt, when found out, become especially good moralists.

The corrupt man is nearly always rootless, deeply aware of his rootlessness.

The United States is dangerously close to being a plutocracy. A third of the private wealth is owned by less than 5 percent of the population.

For domination has nothing whatsoever to do with good government, and power as an end in itself destroys good government.

At the heart of the mystery of corruption lies the desire of one man to impose his will on others to the largest possible extent.

Conquest, tyranny, treachery, and the clash of cultures bring about corrupt societies, and so does old age. Sometimes the five faces of corruption are visible at the same time.

A culture is not only the language and the arts of a people. It is all their history, all their hopes for the future.

It is precisely when we help one another that we gain our victories over corruption, but the victory is assured only when we help one another with all our strength.

Sometimes societies die and putrefy long before they are pronounced dead, and sometimes men die of corruption long before they have taken to their deathbeds.

Corruption appears to be a universal phenomenon that lays its own imperious claims on the world, and therefore it is the duty of all nations to prepare themselves against its onslaught by taking proper precautions.