Governmental Corruption Quotes

Should look forward to a time, and that not a distant one, when corruption in this, as in the country from which we derive our origin, will have seized the heads of government, and be spread by them through the body of the people; when they will purchase the voices of the people, and make them pay the price.

Contact with the affairs of state is one of the most corrupting of the influences to which men are exposed.

Politics are a very unsatisfactory game.

The government of the State has presented two different lines of activity, one of the constitutional and statutory officers of the State, and the other of the party leaders,—they call them party bosses. They call the system—I don’t coin the phrase, I adopt it because it carries its own meaning—the system they call "invisible government." For I don’t remember how many years, Mr. Conkling was the supreme ruler in this State; the Governor did not count, the legislatures did not count; comptrollers and secretaries of state and what not, did not count. It was what Mr. Conkling said, and in a great outburst of public rage, he was pulled down. Then Mr. Platt ruled the State; for nigh upon twenty years he ruled it. It was not the Governor; it was not the Legislature; it was not any elected officers; it was Mr. Platt. And the capitol was not here; it was at 49 Broadway.

I have simplified my politics into an utter detestation of all existing governments …

I've voted Libertarian as long as I can remember, but I don't really remember much before the Clintons and the Bushes. Those clans made a lot of us bugnutty.

When extraordinary power and extraordinary pay are allotted to any individual in a government, he becomes the center, round which every kind of corruption generates and forms.

I used to have a phrase: Liberalism is spreading misery equally. And now the ruling class throughout Washington seems to have adopted this.

A small acquaintance with history shows that all governments are selfish and the French governments more selfish than most.

The entire well-being of Amsterdam is threatened by the machinations of a small band of anarchists, dispersed throughout the country but whose headquarters lie within this city. They may be found in the Constituent Assembly and in the provincial administrations …. For some time now they have worked steadily to create disorder and to win office for themselves …

If the problem is Washington is corrupt, why on Earth would you want to give more power to Washington?