You May Also Like / View all maxioms
 Alas! the small discredit of a bribe
 Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe.  
 Alas! the small discredit of a bribe
 Scarce hurts the lawyer, but undoes the scribe. 
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
 'Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures;
 And all are to be sold, if you consider
  Their passions, and read more 
 'Tis pleasant purchasing our fellow-creatures;
 And all are to be sold, if you consider
  Their passions, and are dext'rous; some by features
   Are brought up, others by a warlike leader;
    Some by a place--as tend their years or natures;
     The most by ready cash--but all have prices,
      From crowns to kicks, according to their vices. 
 Flowery oratory he [Walpole] despised. He ascribed to the 
interested views of themselves or their relatives the 
declarations read more 
 Flowery oratory he [Walpole] despised. He ascribed to the 
interested views of themselves or their relatives the 
declarations of pretended patriots, of whom he said, "All those 
men have their price." 
 There is thy gold--worse poison to men's souls,
 Doing more murder in this loathsome world,
  Than these read more 
 There is thy gold--worse poison to men's souls,
 Doing more murder in this loathsome world,
  Than these poor compounds that thou mayst not sell.
   I sell thee poison; thou hast sold me none
    Farewell. Buy food and get thyself in flesh. 
 What, shall one of us,
 That struck for the foremost man of all this world
  But for read more 
 What, shall one of us,
 That struck for the foremost man of all this world
  But for supporting robbers--shall we now
   Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,
    And sell the mighty space of our large honors
     For so much trash as may be grasped thus? 
 Judges and senates have been bought for gold;
 Esteem and love were never to be sold.  
 Judges and senates have been bought for gold;
 Esteem and love were never to be sold. 
 By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are 
abused; the law itself is influenced read more 
 By gold all good faith has been banished; by gold our rights are 
abused; the law itself is influenced by gold, and soon there will 
be an end of every modest restraint.
 [Lat., Auro pulsa fides. auro venalia jura,
  Aurum lex sequitur, mox sine lege pudor.] 
 Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
 He had not the method of making a fortune.  
 Too poor for a bribe, and too proud to importune,
 He had not the method of making a fortune.