Money Politics and the Malaysian Malaise - 50 Corruption Quotes To Ponder

"Politicians are like diapers.  They both need changing regularly and for the same reason."  ~Author Unknown

These are dark and hard times. As we hurtle towards the momentous juncture of decision, here are some amazing quotes regarding the corruptible, for you to ponder when you cast that vote at GE13. 

Warning: There is so much truth inside it will hurt. But there is panacea for the pain, and you will know the answer once you are done reading.

1. Corruption is worse than prostitution. The latter might endanger the morals of an individual, the former invariably endangers the morals of the entire country. - Karl Kraus

2. Power corrupts. Knowledge is power. Study hard. Be evil. - Eleanor Roosevelt

 

 

 

 
3. A government, for protecting business only, is but a carcass, and soon falls by its own corruption and decay. - Amos Bronson Alcott

4. One must beware of ministers who can do nothing without money, and those who want to do everything with money. - Indira Gandhi


5. “The duty of youth is to challenge corruption” - Kurt Cobain

6. “All the problems of the world - child labor, corruption - are symptoms of a spiritual disease: lack of compassion.” - Tenzin Gyatso The 14th Dalai Lama
 

7. “In a state where corruption abounds, laws must be very numerous.” - Publius Cornelius Tacitus


8. “Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it; and this I know, my lords, that where laws end, tyranny begins” - William Pitt the younger

9. “The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference” - Bess Myerson

10. “Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it's set a rolling it must increase.” - Charles Caleb Colton

11.“The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means” - Georges Bernanos

12.“Corruption is nature's way of restoring our faith in democracy.” - Peter Ustinov

13.“each candidate behaved well in the hope of being judged worthy of election. However, this system was disastrous when the city had become corrupt. For then it was not the most virtuous but the most powerful who stood for election, and the weak, even if virtuous, were too frightened to run for office.” - Niccolo Machiavelli



14.“They call me corrupt, frivolous. I am not at all privileged. Maybe the only privileged thing is my face. And corrupt? God! I would not look like this if I am corrupt. Some ugliness would settle down on my system.” - Imelda Marcos


 
15.“Our worst enemies here are not the ignorant and simple, however cruel; our worst enemies are the intelligent and corrupt” - Graham Greene

16.“Entitlement and privelege corrupt.” - Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale

17.“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.” - John Steinbeck

18.“Contradiction is the salt which keeps truth from corruption” - John Lancaster Spalding

19.“The fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be. It exacts a toll on our self, our families, our friends, and especially our children. In the end, I believe, as in my case, the price we pay is well worth holding on to our dignity.” - Frank Serpico

20.“There can be no press freedom when journalists exist in conditions of corruption, poverty and fear.” - Aidan White

21. The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently - Friedrich Nietzsche

22. “Corruption is authority plus monopoly minus transparency.”- Unknown 



23. "Power attracts the corruptible. Absolute power attracts the absolutely corruptible."
- Frank Herbert

24. "It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression."- Eric Hoffer

25. 'Information is the lifeblood of a democracy. Without adequate access to key information about government policies and programs, citizens and parliamentarians cannot make informed decisions and incompetent or corrupt governments can be hidden under a cloak of secrecy.' - Stephen Harper 

26."Politicians are like diapers.  They both need changing regularly and for the same reason." ~Author Unknown 




27. "Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other."  
~Oscar Ameringer

28."Politicians say they’re beefing up our economy.  Most don’t know beef from pork." ~Harold Lowman

29."Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party."  ~Winston Churchill 



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

31."If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal."  ~Emma Goldman 

 

32."We have plenty of Confidence in this country, but we are a little short of good men to place our Confidence in."  ~Will Rogers 



33."We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."  
~Aesop 


34."Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote."  
~George Jean Nathan 


35."Those who corrupt the public mind are just as evil as those who steal from the public purse."
 - Adlai E. Stevenson

36."Governments that block the aspirations of their people, that steal or are corrupt, that oppress and torture or that deny freedom of expression and human rights should bear in mind that they will find it increasingly hard to escape the judgement of their own people, or where warranted, the reach of international law."
- William Hague 

37."For far too long the world's poorest people have seen no benefit from the vast natural resources in their own backyards. It is time to end the injustice where ordinary people are silent witnesses, left to suffer without basic services, as the profits from their countries' assets are hidden and plundered by corrupt regimes."
- Nick Clegg 



38."When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals."
- Bono of U2

39."Men of integrity, by their very existence, rekindle the belief that as a people we can live above the level of moral squalor. We need that belief; a cynical community is a corrupt community. "
- John W. Gardner 



40. "If a policy is wrongheaded, feckless and corrupt, I take it personally and consider it a moral obligation to sound off and not shut up until it's fixed."
- David Hackworth

41. "I have never intimidated the masses... I only intimidate corrupt officials."
- Zhu Rongji


42. "You can't get rid of poverty by giving people money."   
- P J O'Rourke 


43. No matter how noble the objective of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life, and breeds ill will and suspicion - it is an evil government.
 - Eric Hoffer   


44. “One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

45. “Experience has shown, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”
― Thomas Jefferson

46. “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
― Aung San Suu Kyi, Freedom from Fear


47. “To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.”
― G. Edward Griffin

 
48. “The mistake you make, don't you see,is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You're trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can't. One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can't put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.”
― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying

49. “Conflict is created by two conditions: the evil that is sanctioned by the corrupted…and the sacrifice borne by upright men and women who chose to destroy it.”
― Adam Turquine - from Beyond Mars Crimson Fleet

50.  “Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”― Edmund Burke



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