The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence,—luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition,—are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
When rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.
—Georges Bernanos (1888–1948) French Novelist, Polemicist
Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.
—Bess Myerson (1924–2014) American Model, Civil Rights Activist
I want either less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
—Ashleigh Brilliant (1933–2025) American Epigrammatist, Author, Cartoonist
The corruptions of the country are closely allied to those of the town, with no difference but what is made by another mode of thought and living.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.
—Saul Alinsky (1909–72) American Community Organizer, Political Theorist
There are some frauds so well conducted that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Decadence is a difficult word to use since it has become little more than a term of abuse applied by critics to anything they do not yet understand or which seems to differ from their moral concepts.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Every civilization when it loses its inner vision and its cleaner energy, falls into a new sort of sordidness, more vast and more stupendous than the old savage sort. An Augean stable of metallic filth.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Critic
There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
O, that estates, degrees, and offices were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor were purchased by the merit of the wearer.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Wherever you see a man who gives someone else’s corruption, someone else’s prejudice as a reason for not taking action himself, you see a cog in The Machine that governs us.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Literary Critic, Essayist
Men first feel necessity, then look for utility, next attend to comfort, still later amuse themselves with pleasure, thence grow dissolute in luxury, and finally go mad and waste their substance.
—Giambattista Vico (1668–1744) Italian Philosopher, Rhetorician, Jurist
The jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honor feels.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
The first and worst of all frauds is to cheat one’s self. All sin is easy after that.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
We have perhaps a natural fear of ends. We would rather be always on the way than arrive. Given the means, we hang on to them and often forget the ends.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
The sun shineth upon the dunghill, and is not corrupted.
—John Lyly (1554–1606) English Dramatist, Novelist, Writer
Corrupt, stupid grasping functionaries will make at least as big a muddle of socialism as stupid, selfish and acquisitive employers can make of capitalism.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator
Corrupt influence is itself the perennial spring of all prodigality, and of all disorder; it loads us more than millions of debt; takes away vigor from our arms, wisdom from our councils, and every shadow of authority and credit from the most venerable parts of our constitution.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
It is a fraud to borrow what we are unable to pay.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
I have often noticed that a bribe has that effect—it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.
—Graham Greene (1904–1991) British Novelist, Short Story Writer, Playwright
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