When rogues like these (a sparrow cries)
To honours and employments rise,
I court no favor, ask read more

When rogues like these (a sparrow cries)
To honours and employments rise,
I court no favor, ask no place,
For such preferment is disgrace.

At length corruption, like a general flood
(So long by watchful ministers withstood),
Shall deluge all; and read more

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.

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.

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today

Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today

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

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

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 accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference

The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference

Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction read more

Calvin: Do you believe in the devil? You know, a supreme evil being dedicated to the temptation, corruption, and destruction of man? Hobbes: I'm not sure that man needs the help

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.