Henry A. Wallace Quotes

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

As readers, we sense when the game is being played for real and when something else is afoot: pride, showmanship, the pursuit of power, self-aggrandizement, revenge, making money. Not that there's anything wrong with any of that, but I dislike closing a book with the sense that I've been had.

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.

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.

To plunder, to lie, to show your ass, are the three essentials for climbing high.

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

Politicians need three things to be successful: money, unchecked ego, and sociopathic drive.

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

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.

Life is a racket. Writing is a racket. Sincerity is a racket. Everything's a racket.

In order to obtain and hold power a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft and cruelty.

The great corrupter of public man is the ego.

Under every stone lurks a politician

It all boils down to power and money.

A political career brings out the basest qualities in human nature.

But what will not ambition and revenge descend to?

There were also very great robberies and murder of our principal men. This was done in pretense indeed for the public welfare, but in reality for the hopes of gain to themselves

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.

The chief of these [problems governing Korea] arise from the character of the Koreans. Many of them are crooked. They want "squeeze" from the Japanese and their own people. They are lazy.

As a businessman, Trump preyed on the hopes and anxieties of struggling middle-class families. He cheated and scammed employees and customers alike. He left behind a trail of bankrupted companies. Past is prologue, and Trump has continued to pursue his own aggrandizement ruthlessly and relentlessly as a candidate and as president-elect.

I want to be evil! I did play Lady Macbeth on stage to Alec Baldwin's Macbeth back in New York in 1998. But I've played a lot of characters who are so righteous and understanding. I don't want to be a goody-goody two-shoes all the time.

Nearly everyone who chooses to work for Donald Trump is disreputable in one way or another; Ali Baba didn't find 40 wise men in the cave. But to label everyone in Trumpworld a grifter misses important subtleties. It conflates grifters and grafters, and it ignores the crucial distinction between the two.

'House Of Cards' with Kevin Spacey - I love how it portrays humans in power as just like the rest of us - but even worse.

In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty.