John Adams Quotes

There are no necessary evils in government. It's evils exist only in its abuses.

Corruption is rampant in Pakistan and the government’s failure to control the practice has made it almost impossible to reverse the trend.

We don't know what proportion of public funds is regularly lost to collusion and corruption. Is it 25 per cent? 30 per cent? We do know that a portion of these public funds are feeding organized crime.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

Leaders in Africa are so corrupt that we are certain if we put dogs in uniforms and put guns on their shoulders, we'd be hard put to distinguish them.

It is the steady abuse of power in other governments which renders that of opposition always the popular party.

The great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes.

government may secretly and unobserved, confiscate the wealth of the people, and not one man in a million will detect the theft.

It is assumed that every one wants some thing. Even the strictly honorable want honors. In the list of illegitimate favors are to be counted; unconscionable grants to public utilities; undeserved deposits to friendly banks; low valuation for taxation to large corporations and individuals with a pull; a complaisant building inspector; delinquent taxes allowed to remain delinquent; appropriation for public purposes of property no longer desired by the owner at a price far in excess of actual value. For the less powerful, there are grants of market or parking privileges, poor relief, indigent soldier burials, taking care of traffic citations, lending dogs from the dog pound, and so on down to the right of unmolested profitable street-begging.

Corruption in the kingdom is so great that not more than 10 percent of the taxes collected ever reach the treasury.

Corruption could lead to the collapse of the Party [Communist Party of China] and the downfall of the State.

The worst sense of security is a false one. It's hard for people to wrap their heads around the idea that those in charge - federal, state and local agencies - might be cheating the system. But, all too often, that is exactly what happens.

When you are running the country it means you work for the poor people. It doesn't mean you siphon off money of disabled people. It does not mean you allot public property like coal for free to rich people.

It makes me mad to see people in government serving themselves at our expense.

History will remember the UPA-II government for its numerous scandals, scams, and corruption, probably the maximum number ever.

Corruption in government is an overwhelming problem.

Government has within it a tendency to abuse its powers.

The grossest, the cruelest, the most selfish, the most easily pervertible and perverted thing in this world, is government.

In a word, everything is for sale, anything can be bought in our country. And in this flow, he who holds the slightest cover of public authority uses it illegally to acquire money, goods, prestige or to avoid obligations. The right to be recognized by a public servant, to have one's children enrolled in school, to obtain medical care, etc. ...are all subject to this tax which, though invisible, is known and expected by all.

Nothing corrupts a man so much as being an arm of the law and making men suffer.

Secrecy helps give oil wealth its democracy-repelling powers: citizens are satisfied with low taxes and seemingly generous benefits only when they do not realize how much of their country’s wealth is being lost to theft, corruption, and government incompetence.

This office has in recent decades, in my view, been seriously misused and distorted

There are, perhaps, few men who can for any great length of time enjoy office and power without being more or less under the influence of feelings unfavorable to the faithful discharge of their public duties. Their integrity may be proof against improper considerations immediately addressed to themselves, but they are apt to acquire a habit of looking with indifference upon the public interests and of tolerating conduct from which an unpracticed man would revolt. Office is considered as a species of property, and government rather as a means of promoting individual interests than as an instrument created solely for the service of the people.

Overly concentrated power, whether in public, private or even in civic hands is an invitation to abuse.

The theory of communism is that the government takes money from the haves to help the have-nots; the reality is the government helps itself. In capitalistic America, four of the five richest counties surround Washington, D.C. If we were communists, it would be five.