If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.

If something can corrupt you, you're corrupted already.

Corruption is a tree, whose branches are
Of an immeasurable length: they spread
Ev'rywhere; and the dew read more

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.

I know, when they prove bad, they are a sort of the vilest
creatures: yet still the same reason read more

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.

The men with the muck-rake are often indispensable to the
well-being of society, but only if they know when read more

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,

Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil.

Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil.

. . . thieves at home must hang; but he that puts
Into his overgorged and bloated purse
read more

. . . thieves at home must hang; but he that puts
Into his overgorged and bloated purse
The wealth of Indian provinces, escapes.

The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it
passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
read more

The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light; although it
passes among the impure, it is not polluted.
[Lat., Spiritalis enim virtus sacramenti ita est ut lux: etsi
per immundos transeat, non inquinatur.]

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually read more

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

'Tis the most certain sign, the world's accurst
That the best things corrupted, are the worst;
'Twas read more

'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.