Quale nell’ arzana de Viniziani bolle l’inverno la tenace pece a rimpalmar li lor legni non sani, che navicar non ponno, e in quella vece chi fa suo… - Dante Alighieri

people, when they see their leader snatch at those same goods that greedily they crave, graze on just those, and do not seek beyond. 103 So – as you may well see – bad government is why the world is so malignant now. It’s not that nature is corrupt in you.

Inferno: Canto XIII
Not yet had Nessus reached the other side,
When we had put ourselves within a wood,
That was not marked by any path whatever.
Not foliage green, but of a dusky colour,
Not branches smooth, but gnarled and intertangled,
Not apple-trees were there, but thorns with poison.
Such tangled thickets have not, nor so dense,
Those savage wild beasts, that in hatred hold
'Twixt Cecina and Corneto the tilled places.
There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,
Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,
With sad announcement of impending doom;
Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,
And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;
They make laments upon the wondrous trees.

Oh blind, oh ignorant, self-seeking cupidity which spurs as so in the short mortal life and steeps as through all eternity.