Robert Payne
Robert Payne
position-of-power garbage would-be
It is no more rational to have lawyers in positions of power than it would be to have garbage collectors in positions of power. And in human terms garbage collectors would be preferable.
lying heart men
At the heart of the mystery of corruption lies the desire of one man to impose his will on others to the largest possible extent.
age culture faces
Conquest, tyranny, treachery, and the clash of cultures bring about corrupt societies, and so does old age. Sometimes the five faces of corruption are visible at the same time.
art people culture
A culture is not only the language and the arts of a people. It is all their history, all their hopes for the future.
taken men long
Sometimes societies die and putrefy long before they are pronounced dead, and sometimes men die of corruption long before they have taken to their deathbeds.
world corruption precaution
Corruption appears to be a universal phenomenon that lays its own imperious claims on the world, and therefore it is the duty of all nations to prepare themselves against its onslaught by taking proper precautions.
book men yesterday
The books of men have their day and grow obsolete. God's word is like Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.
government ends domination
For domination has nothing whatsoever to do with good government, and power as an end in itself destroys good government.
united-states population wealth
The United States is dangerously close to being a plutocracy. A third of the private wealth is owned by less than 5 percent of the population.
men
The corrupt man is nearly always rootless, deeply aware of his rootlessness.
found good-moral moralist
The corrupt, when found out, become especially good moralists.
military oligarchy wealth
The second corruption of the state is oligarchy (oligos = few), in which the military elite is narrowed down to a few ruling families of immense wealth and prestige, who now openly flaunt their wealth and possessions.
bored long empires
Long before the empire had reached its greatest extent, the Romans were bored by it.
kingdoms firsts crumbling
Historically the first philosopher to enquire deeply into the nature of corruption in society was Ibn Khaldun (1322-1406), whose wandering life was largely spent in the northern littoral of Africa at a time when kingdoms and sultanates were crumbling.