Benjamin Disraeli Quotes

Politics, as the word is commonly understood, are nothing but corruptions, and consequently of no use to a good king or a good ministry; for which reason Courts are so overrun with politics.

A politician's goal is always to manipulate public debate. I think there are some politicians with higher goals. But all of them get corrupted by power.

He [Donald Trump] buys and sells politicians of all stripes.

I have heard in highest places the shameless doctrine avowed by men grown old in public office that the true way by which power should be gained in the Republic is to bribe the people with the offices created for their service.

If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more.

No government functions without the grease of corruption.

When I came to Washington, I was troubled to observe so many similarities between the behaviors of drug-addicted patients and my political colleagues. In Washington power is like morphine.

The problem with politics isn't the money; it's the power.

In any country, corruption tends to increase when more respectable means of social advancement break down.

There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress.

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

I knew President Yeltsin well. He would never have tolerated government officials demonstratively showing off the millions they acquired through corruption, the way it's done today.

But I don't need to use politics as a way of making money.

I don't actually subscribe to the view that all power corrupts. But absolute power - when secured on the back of massive parliamentary majorities, which don't reflect the balance of political opinion in the country - can corrupt absolutely.

President Johnson had a habit of throwing dollars at a question and the question would disappear.

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.

I'm very interested in how corruption works - and it's not necessarily the way one might expect.

Our tribunals — unlike those in the United States — have been traditionally subordinated to political power. Mexico has a history of corrupt elections where the will of the people has been subverted by the wealthy and powerful.

Eventually, money wins in politics.

Either force or corruption has been the principle of every modern government.

Honest Graft

If fifty dollars will purchase the vote of one Supervisor, the votes of how many supervisors will three hundred and fifty dollars purchase?

All legislative bodies which control pecuniary interests are as sure to have a lobby as an army to have camp followers. Where the body is, there will the vultures be gathered together.

Politicians have no politics.

The boss of all bosses operates like a shifty-eyed precinct captain on the make ... These are activities on would expect of a small-time ward heeler, not a figure of such influence and stature.