Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Quotes

I've got a pretty iconoclastic attitude about all institutions myself. And I just think the church was corrupted right after Christ was killed.

I think most of our religious institutions are pretty corrupt, so they're not reliable. I think the Christian religion that I was brought up with has very little to do with Christ, really, and more an institutions that have built up around the church.

How many priests, pray, are free from whoredom? Nay, how many of their houses are infamous for daily acts of lewdness? How many honorable families do they defile by their vagabond lusts? For my part, I have no pleasure in exposing their vices, and it is no part of my design; but it is of importance to observe what a wide difference there is between the conduct of the priesthood of the present day, and that which true ministers of Christ and his church are bound to pursue.

The main thing is the ‘rule of corruption’: helping the horse both to race and also to get a mouthful of hay. It’s what all civil servants are secretly thinking. Our expectations for our civil servants are far too high, far too grandiose. The pressure is more than their flesh-and-blood bodies can stand.

For too long executive officials, businesspeople and hangers-on have enjoyed this private casino, using the payments into Fifa's account to fund their lavish lifestyles.

Corruption exists because there is too much, not too little, market.

Give me priests who are fat and corrupt and cynical,(...) the sort who like to sit on soft satin cushions, nibble sweetmeats, and diddle little boys. It's the ones who believe in gods who make the trouble. (Tyrion)

At this time of year it's easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse.

That very church which the world likes best is sure to be that which God abhors.

Do you see this egg? With this you can topple every theological theory, every church or temple in the world.

The Catholic Church has a dignity far surpassing that of every merely human society, for it was founded by Christ the Lord. It is altogether fitting, therefore, that the language it uses should be noble, majestic, and non-vernacular.

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

Nowhere nor in anything, except in the assertion of the Church, can we find that God or Christ founded anything like what churchmen understand by the Church.

Corruption is one of the greatest enemies of progress in our time. It is the cancer at the heart of so many of the world's problems.

The sex abuse crisis in the Catholic Church is the result of what police call "noble cause corruption," the belief that because you are dedicated to doing good, you can do no wrong.

Power brings a man many luxuries, but a clean pair of hands is seldom among them.

No matter how corrupt the Church may become, it carries within it the seeds of its own regeneration.

It is a great mistake to suppose that bribery and corruption, although they may be very convenient for gratifying the ambition or the vanity of individuals, have any great effect upon the fortunes or the power of parties. And it is a great mistake to suppose that bribery and corruption are means by which power can either be ob-tained or retained.

Every government is always growing corrupt.

Don't give your money to the church. They should be giving their money to you.

These guys [the Catholic church] make Enron look like altar boys.

In general, corruption tends to exist whenever governments have favors to extend, or something to sell.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are married, so under the law, paying him for a speech is like giving money directly to her [Hillary Clinton] - to the Secretary of State. I cannot think of a comparable 'pay to play' scandal.

But then the pastors and men of God can only be human,--cannot altogether be men of God; and so they have oppressed us, and burned us, and tortured us, and hence come to love palaces, and fine linen, and purple, and, alas, sometimes, mere luxury and idleness.