Veronica Roth Quotes

The people of America seem to have lost sight entirely of the noble principle which animated them at the commencement of it. That patriotic ardor which then inspired each breast, — that glorious, I had almost said godlike, enthusiasm, — has given place to avarice, and every rascally practice which tends to the gratification of that sordid and most disgraceful passion. I don't know as it would be too bold an assertion to say, that its depreciation is equal to that of the currency, — thirty for one.

Hero­ism breaks its heart, and ide­al­ism its back, on the intran­si­gence of the cred­u­lous and the mediocre, manip­u­lated by the cyn­i­cal and the corrupt.

I think it's very easy to get corrupted.

Most people who get into power in the western world start with great intentions, but slowly they all become entrapped and hung by their own petard.

The road to perdition has ever been accompanied by lip service to an ideal.

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.

The great corrupter of public man is the ego. Looking at the mirror distracts one's attention from the problem.

He who thinks that anything can be accomplished with money will himself likely to do anything for money.

The first sign of corruption in a society ... is that the ends justify the means.

A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.

Passion, prejudice, and error, are characteristics of human nature ….. Literary talents may be prostituted, and the powers of genius debased to subserve the purposes of ambition or avarice.

'House of Cards' is full of hypocrites, some ashamed, many proud. There is no silver lining here, no appeal to a just system that is temporarily thwarted by corrupting forces.

What struck me more than anything is how the people that are involved in government start out from a place of really wanting to do well, no matter what kind of political spectrum they're on, how they have to hold onto that warm fuzzy place in their heart while they're stuck in the machine.

At length corruption, like a general flood (So long by watchful ministers withstood), Shall deluge all; and avarice, creeping on, Spread like a low-born mist, and blot the sun.

Nothing so evil as money ever grew to be current among men. This lays cities low, this drives men from their homes, this trains and warps honest souls till they set themselves to works of shame; this still teaches folk to practise villainies, and to know every godless deed. But all the men who wrought this thing for hire have made it sure that, soon or late, they shall pay the price.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, was above corruption so long as human beings were involved.

Nonsense prevails, modesty fails Grace and virtue turn into stupidity While the calendar fades almost all barricades to a pale compromise And our leaders have feasts on the backsides of beasts They still think they're the gods of antiquity If something you missed didn't even exist It was just an ideal is it such a surprise?

Such is the brutalization of commercial ethics in this country that no one can feel anything more delicate than the velvet touch of a soft buck.

Where wealth and freedom reign contentment fails, And honour sinks where commerce long prevails.

Great riches have sold more men than they have bought.

Sleeping on a dragon's hoard with greedy, dragonish thoughts in his heart, he had become a dragon himself.

A house built on greed cannot long endure.

When a man sells eleven ounces for twelve, he makes a compact with the devil, and sells himself for the value of an ounce.

Depending upon one another's hearts, ye had still hoped that virtue were not all a dream. Now are ye undeceived. Evil is the nature of mankind.