Upton Sinclair Quotes

I can appreciate that on one side, but we have to remember that the system is designed corruptly, and works against us, so you cant convict those who can benefit from the system, because its not neccesarily their fault.

It's an awful thing to be aware of your own corruption. I think a lot of people are bound by the particular economic system we work in to serve companies and masters who aren't really telling people what they're doing.

A lot of people are deeply dissatisfied by the diminishing control they have over their lives, because of the way our system of government is set up, to cater to the powerful, cater to the wealthy, cater to the corporations, and not to the individual American citizen.

There's an awful lot of corruption in Japanese business and politics, corruption of the sort that can make for great setting for a spy story.

For an adult, the world is constantly trying to clamp down on itself. Routine, responsibility, decay of institutions, corruption: this is all the world closing in.

For any politician who didn't enter office a wealthy man, nothing says 'I take bribes' like a Rolex watch.

Rather than let their product compete fully and fairly in the marketplace, FalconStor resorted to bribery and graft to win important contracts in a scheme that reached the highest levels of the company.

I think it's disingenuous to believe that being born into a privileged world means you feel like you are having an easy time.

Whoever looks at America will see: the ship is powered by stupidity, corruption, or prejudice.

Honest Graft

Every link in the chain that runs from the corporation desiring political favors down to the policeman on the beat levying his toll on the prostitute or the apple-seller is too strong to have been broken yet.

Getting an advantage at the expense of somebody else—that really is what graft is.

We must rid the country of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.

For Louisiana politicians, bribery is an occupational hazard. When I took the oath of office I didn't take an oath of poverty.

Bribes and special deals were offered to members to say yes.

Mr. Ten Percent

Abramoff did not own me, but we did engage in the culture of corruption together.

These reforms will not be popular with everybody—especially those who are doing just fine under the present system.

The fact that policies often fail for no good reason is annoying but less depressing than the view that it is a big conspiracy against the poor… Name your favorite enemy… capitalism, corruption … Our view is easier. You think hard about the problems and you can solve them.

Corruption is when a politician uses public funds to deliver pistachio ice cream to his home and transfer garden furniture to his Caesarea villa, then requesting that the expenses be covered for the water in his pool and fights to get a private jet.

White male privilege remains alive in America, but the phrase would seem odd, if not infuriating, to a sixty-year-old man working as a Walmart greeter in southern Ohio.

Oppression thrives on distance - on not actually meeting or seeing the oppressed.

As long as you are in that white privilege bubble, you don't need to see the world differently. You don't need to see the world through the eyes of minorities or women.

I have a stepfather who isn't around just because he wants to be with my mother and sisters. There's more to it. He's around for the money. He's proven that in a lot of ways. And my mom loves him. And that's not wrong. But when it interferes with my career and my business and becomes a threat to me, there's a problem.

Where the grifter is shameless, the grafter shrinks from exposure, which could only endanger the racket. He is greedy but not creatively ambitious. He toils in mundane self-dealing, insider trading, bribe taking, witness tampering, and other forms of workaday corruption.