William Devane Quotes

I did a show called 'Profit' a while back, and I based some of the work on some people that were in office at the time.

Big business has no party and never shall have.

Politics are about preserving relationships at the end of the day, and it has nothing to do with the greater good for humanity. It's just all about business.

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

Say no to politicians who sacrifice the interests of individual investors to corporate interests.

I get really, really concerned when I see somebody, taking $600,000 in speaking fees from Goldman Sachs, will not release what they're actually saying. That's concerning.

The worst enemy of good government is not our ignorant foreign voter [immigrants], but our educated domestic railroad president, our prominent business man, our leading lawyer.

Must we always look for the political opinions of our businessmen precisely where they suppose their immediate pecuniary advantage to be found?

On streets where statesmen once strolled, a never-ending stream of money now changes hands—tying the hands of those elected to lead.

Honorariums are really dishonorariums. So long as they continue, public trust in Congress will sink even below its minimal level today.... Public officials should have only one paymaster: the Government. When the Government pays too little, the temptation to find other paymasters becomes far harder to resist.

A congressman would rather be called a pervert than a protectionist right now. And he'd probably get better treatment from the press if he was.

Samuel J. Tilden says we are a nation of thieves and rascals. If that is so he ought to be President.

Friendship is the most corrupting influence in politics.

State Department perverts ... bright young men who were born with silver spoons in their mouths ... selling the Nation out.

This system stinks and every senator who participates in it knows it stinks. And the American people are right when they mistrust this system, when what matters most in seeking public office is not integrity, not ability, not judgment, not reason, not responsibility, not experience, not intelligence, but money …. Money dominates the system. Money infuses the system. Money is the system.

We have needed … reforms for quite some time. But because of collusion between politics and business, nothing happened.

There is nothing wrong with God, and the flag is good as is the family, but what I resent is that the Republicans use these as a cover for their support of big money.

Everybody must be removed [from public office] who has the mentality of the capitalist.

The Capitol Building should have a sign saying, “Warning!! You are now Entering an Ethics-Free Zone!”

Historians, studying us, will say that we allowed corporations to become the government.

The Department of State has become a concession hunting agency for the Standard Oil Company

Unfortunately, public officials are largely controlled by the very corporations against which they should proceed.

The Republican Party is the open and avowed handmaiden of the trusts.

… the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics

We’d be crazy to let corporations get anywhere near our government. The only reason they want to influence government is to plunder—to steal from children.