We must soften into a credulity below the milkiness of infancy to think all men virtuous. We

must be tainted with a malignity truly diabolical, to believe all the world to be equally wicked

and corrupt.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

Irish-born British statesman and political philosopher.Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents 

Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

King James Bible 

Matthew 7:17-20

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred

from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

King James Bible 

I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister.

King James Bible 

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the

dead rise not? Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die.

Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

King James Bible 

All things can corrupt perverted minds.

Ovid (43 BC - 17 AD)Roman poet.

Tristia 

Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.

Edward Gibbon (1737 - 1794)

Everything is perfect coming from the hands of the Creator; everything degenerates in the hands

of man.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)

French philosopher and writer. Émile

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds:

Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616)

English poet and playwright.Sonnet 94,

 

It will, I believe, be generally agreed that ERADICATION OF CORRUPTION from any society

is not just a difficult task: it is without dispute, an impossible objective.

Obafemi Awolowo (1909 - 1987) Nigerian lawyer and politician, August 18, 1975.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always

 bad men...There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

Lord Acton (1834 - 1902)

British historian, April 3, 1887.

Often misquoted as "Power corrupts..." Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton 

We have a cancer within, close to the Presidency, that is growing. It is growing daily.

John Dean (1938 - )U.S. presidential counsel, 1973.

From a taped conversation with the president, Richard Nixon. Referring to the Watergate

scandal.

A swarm of high and low agents of the Government falls on villages and towns and unfolds the

whole repertory of its overbearing acts, puts in practice all the arts of abuse, and realizes the

most outrageous falsifications and manipulations and tries on the most ingenious tricks anddeceits.

Antonio Maura (1853 - 1925)

Spanish politician.Referring to election activities.

Speech made to Congress, Madrid

Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely.

Adlai Stevenson (1900 - 1965)

U.S. statesman.

Parody of a remark by Lord Acton.The Observer (London) 

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

William Pitt the Elder (1708 - 1778)

British prime minister.

Speech to the House of Lords, the upper house of the British Parliament