Franz Grillparzer Quotes

Fear not, the people may be deluded for a moment, but cannot be corrupted.

The great corrupter of public man is the ego.

What, I should only trust good people? Man, good people get bought and sold every day. Might as well trust somebody evil once in a while, it makes no more or less sense.

...I wish that I may never think the smiles of the great and powerful a sufficient inducement to turn aside from the straight path of honesty and the convictions of my own mind.

I would say that today, dishonesty is the rule, and honesty the exception. It could be, statistically, that more people are honest than dishonest, but the few that really control things are not honest, and that tips the balance.

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

Truth made you a traitor as it often does in a time of scoundrels.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

A person should not be too honest. Straight trees are cut first and honest people are screwed first.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.

Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.

Never lie, never cheat, never steal.

As I watched some of the Watergate hearings I kept asking myself what all these people—[John] Dean and others—were doing there in the first place. Was there really an honest job that needed doing?

Plain truth, backed up by neither power or money, has no chance.

If you want to test a man's character, give him power.

The first thing a man will do for his ideals is lie.

A man is not honest simply because he never had a chance to steal

Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power.|

I love that Barry Seal is working for the CIA, and he's an awful liar. It just goes to how honest this character is at the end of the day, even as he rips off the country and the world to the tune of becoming one of the wealthiest men in America. There's an innate honesty, a purity to him.

My dream is to be able to promote a message of honesty, whether with music or in anything that I'm doing. I don't think to be a role model you have to be perfect.

Actually, no one is born honest or corrupt.

Money makes everybody evil when you think about it.

that when given the opportunity, many honest people will cheat.