Corruption

Quotes about Corruption.

Quotes

• THE CORRUPT FEAR US · THE HONEST SUPPORT US · THE HEROIC JOIN US.
  • Anonymous motto, used in many placards, quoted at Anonymousuk.org

• Corruption exists because there is too much, not too little, market.
  • Ha-Joon Chang, in Bad Samaritans (2008), Prologue, p. xxv

• History shows that, at earlier stages of economic development, corruption is difficult to control. The fact that today no country that is very poor is very clean suggests that a country has to rise above absolute poverty before it can significantly reduce venality in the system.
  • Ha-Joon Chang, in Bad Samaritans (2008), Ch. 8: Zaire vs Indonesia, Should we turn our backs on corrupt and undemocratic countries?, Prosperity and honesty, p. 151

• I have nothing against the smell of rot but something against what hides the smell of rot in the United States of America."
  • Giannina Braschi, "United States of Banana," (2011).

• * * thieves at home must hang; but he that puts
  Into his overgorged and bloated purse
  The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes.
  • William Cowper, The Task (1785), Book I, line 736.

• Corruption is a tree, whose branches are
  Of an immeasurable length: they spread
  Ev'rywhere; and the dew that drops from thence
  Hath infected some chairs and stools of authority.
  • John Fletcher, The Honest Man's Fortune (1613; published 1647), Act III, scene 3.

• When rogues like these (a sparrow cries)
  To honours and employments rise,
  I court no favor, ask no place,
  For such preferment is disgrace.
  • John Gay, Fables (1727), Part II. Fable 2.

• At length corruption, like a general flood
  (So long by watchful ministers withstood),
  Shall deluge all; and avarice, creeping on,
  Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun.
  • Alexander Pope, Moral Essays (1731-35), Epistle III, line 135.

Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 140.

• Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi per immundos transeat, non inquinatur.
  • The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light: although it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
  • Augustine of Hippo, Works, Volume III. In Johannis Evang. Cap. I. Tr. V. Section XV.

• 'Tis the most certain sign, the world's accurst
  That the best things corrupted, are the worst;
  'Twas the corrupted Light of knowledge, hurl'd
  Sin, Death, and Ignorance o'er all the world;
  That Sun like this (from which our sight we have)
  Gaz'd on too long, resumes the light he gave.
  • Sir John Denham, Progress of Learning.

• I know, when they prove bad, they are a sort of the vilest creatures: yet still the same reason gives it: for, Optima corrupta pessima: the best things corrupted become the worst.
  • Owen Feltham, Resolves, XXX. Of Woman, p. 70. Pickering's Reprint of Fourth Ed. (1631).

• So true is that old saying, Corruptio optimi pessima.
  • Samuel Purchas, Pilgrimage, To the Reader; of religion. Saying may be traced to Thomas Aquinas, Prim. Soc., Art. I. 5. Aristotle, Eth. Nic., VIII. 10. 12. Eusebius, Demon. Evang. I, IV, Chapter XII, St. Gregory, Moralia on Job.

• The men with the muck-rake are often indispensable to the well-being of society, but only if they know when to stop raking the muck.
  • Theodore Roosevelt, address at the Corner-stone laying of the Office Building of House of Representatives (April 14, 1906).