Stacey D'Erasmo Quotes

There are probably several hundred thousand if we narrow the definition to include only those who in their search for money and power are ruthless and deceitful.

Realize that the game of life is the game of, to some extent, being taken advantage of by people who make a science of it. Whether they are in government or personal life or in business, they're everywhere.

One of the profound effects of economics in our day is that the people with the money and the power have embraced the guilt-free, external-less, everything-will-turn-out-okay-in-the-end philosophy of economics in order to justify their own evil works. And the economists, for the most part, have sucked up to that money.

War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.

Once you have power, you are inevitably surrounded by people who have their own agendas and will tell you whatever advances them.

Politics is never about the people. It's about money. And wars. And how many heads you can step on and bodies you can step over. And I'm just not that kind of person.

I'm pretty calculating. I take stuff that I know appeals to people's bad sides and match it up with stuff that appeals to their good sides.

The diplomat holds all acts honorable which bring him success, all things are righteous which serve his ends. If cheating is necessary, he will cheat; if lying is useful, he will lie; if bribery helps, he will bribe; if murder serves, he will order murder; if burglary, seduction, arson or forgery brings success nearer, all and each of these will be done.

Under every stone lurks a politician

If you do not know how to lie, cheat and steal, turn your attention to politics and learn.

They lied, they cheated, they stole, they had the power to do it and they did.

Sex and money always prowl in the penumbra of power.

Two forms of government are favorable to the prevalence of falsehood and deceit. Under a Despotism, men are false, treacherous, and deceitful through fear, like slaves dreading the lash. Under a Democracy they are so as a means of attaining popularity and office, and because of the greed for wealth.

Whenever there is money, power, and titles involved, players are going to be corrupt. That might be a political statement, but that's what it is for the athletes, too.

Money makes everybody evil when you think about it.

When you think someone really has the upper hand, you realize that someone has been played the entire time, and there's a whole other layer where you think the person who is doing the playing has also been played.

Politicians as a class are dangerous, that people who are seeking power over us are not, by definition, our friends.

Flattery and deceit are the darlings of great men, and so with these men spread the butter on thick, if you want to get something out of them, otherwise you'll come home to me with a full belly and an empty purse.

The appalling reality in American politics today is that, when ideology and money mix, truth is a mere inconvenience.

Every swindle is driven by a desire for easy money; it's the one thing the swindler and the swindled have in common.

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

The men that is now is only all palaver and what they can get out of you.

Any time there is a lot of money or ego involved, people tend to behave badly.

There are no generalizations in American politics that vested selfishness cannot cut through.

I think that what went wrong with religion is the same thing that went wrong with politics. Is that it became too money based and too controlling. It's just a weakness that we human beings have for control - we want one thing and then we want more and then we want more.