Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (1911 – 1983)
Novelist, historian, poet, and biographer.
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.
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.
Long before the empire had reached its greatest extent, the Romans were bored by it.
Corrupt men are always liars. Lies are their instruments, their pleasure, their solace. In time they come to believe their lies, or rather to half-believe them.
A culture is not only the language and the arts of a people. It is all their history, all their hopes for the future.
A totalitarian dictatorship cannot explain; it can only suppress.
Naked power has its limitations, since power is a generator of corruption and corruption in its turn tends to dilute the effectiveness of power.
Uncorrupted man, with God's blessing, advances across the fields of the universe as though he were walking down a country lane.
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.
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.
Where there had been hope, there was now hopelessness. Where there had been courage, there was now cynicism. Where there had been life, there was a living death. During Nixon's reign, much of life was transformed into a nightmare.
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.
It is no more rational to have lawyers in positions of power than it would be to have garbage collectors in positions of power. And in human terms garbage collectors would be preferable.
His worst crime was that he gave no hope to the young.
All is forgiven to kings and popes. History grants them immunity, even a full pardon, even when they admit their crimes and glory in them.
Nietzsche's accomplishment is that he permits us to see corruption from the inside.
Throughout the history of Christianity, there had been a core of belief that man was not doomed to be everlastingly corrupt.
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.
A nation's wealth is too serious a matter to be left to the wealthy. The riches of a nation belong to all, to be shared among all for the general welfare.
Fragmentation occurs when a civilization is in decline.