Political Corruption Quotes

The major western democracies are moving towards corporatism. Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies - socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor - and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonalds is to food.

Both Republicans and Democrats are corrupt. The motto of the Democratic Party is, "Anything to get in." The motto of the Republican Party is "Anything to stay in.

Politics is such a torment that I would advise everyone I love not to mix with it.

We have institutions, but they don’t work. We have laws, but they must be enforced.

Congress: America's only true criminal class.

Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct.

Politicians are a lot like diapers. They should be changed frequently and for the same reason.

Our Presidents should not be able to conduct secret operations which violate our principles, jeopardize our rights, and have not been subject to the checks and balances which normally keep policies in line

There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel.

Politics is the art of achieving power and prestige without merit.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury

I've prepared 100 coffins. 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself.

I hope the great Business of Elections will never be left by the Many, to be done by the Few; for before we are aware of it, that few may become the Engine of Corruption ... Heaven forbid! that our Countrymen should ever be byass’d in their Choice, by unreasonable Predilections for any man, or that an Attachment to the Constitution, as has been the Case in other Countries, should be lost in Devotion to Persons. The Effect of this would soon be, to change the Love of Liberty into the Spirit of Faction. Let each Citizen remember, at the Moment he is offering his Vote, that he is not making a Present or a Compliment to please an Individual, or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn Trusts in human Society, for which he is accountable to God and his Country.

Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason

The prince must not mind incurring the scandal of those vices without which it would be difficult to save the state.

Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people in order to betray them.

I view roads as a source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress and their friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money. You will begin by only appropriating the surplus of the post office revenues; but the other revenues will soon be called into their aid, and it will be a source of eternal scramble among the members, who can get the most money wasted in their State

Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

Some governments are corrupt but are known for their competency in running the city. Others are incompetent but are considered "clean." [Washington] DC's government is scandalously corrupt and hopelessly incompetent.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

Give the votes to people who have no property and they will sell them to the rich, who will be able to buy them.

In the majority of African countries, the electoral bodies have been the personal choice of the imperial president….these bodies are not strong enough to withstand executive pressure to manipulate the results.

Concentration of power in a political machine is bad..

The very name of a politician, a statesman, is sure to cause terror and hatred; it has always connected with it the ideas of treachery, cruelty, fraud, and tyranny…

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.