"Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service, when it is violating all His laws."

John Adams

"Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt."

Samuel Adams

"He who is void of virtuous attachments in private life is, or very soon will be, void of all regard for his country. There is seldom an instance of a man guilty of betraying his country, who had not before lost the feeling of moral obligations in his private connections."

Samuel Adams, letter to James Warren (Nov. 4, 1775) 

"Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist."

Edmund Burke

"I tried to walk a line between acting lawfully AND testifying falsely, but I now realize that I did not fully accomplish that goal."

Bill Clinton, Rhodes Scholar 

"The three great apostles of practical atheism that make converts without persecuting, and retain them without preaching, are health, wealth, and power."

Charles Caleb Colton 

"Joe Lieberman may be Moses on the stump, but when it comes to policies and votes, he boogies with the Golden Calf."

Don Feder 

"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) 

"Moral decay first hampers and then strangles honest government, regular commerce, and even the ability to take genuine pleasure in the goods of this world. Compulsion is applied from above as self-discipline relaxes below, and the last liberties expire under the weight of a unitary state.... Since religion has lost its empire over the souls of men, the most prominent boundary that divided good from evil is overthrown; kings and nations are guided by chance and none can say where are the natural limits of despotism and the bound of license."

Russell Kirk 

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer."

Henry Kissinger

"There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt."

Niccolo Machiavelli 

"It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin."

President James Monroe, First Inaugural Address, 1817 

"Lust, Pride, Sloth, and Gluttony, or, as we call them these days, "getting in touch with your sexuality," "raising your self-esteem," "relaxation therapy," and "being a recovered bulimic."

P.J. O'Rourke


"It is easy to see that when republican virtue fails, slavery ensues."

Thomas Paine

"Why does corruption in government always surprise us? Why do we expect anything else from it? Government is organized force. It takes our wealth and makes war. And we think honest men would do that work?"

Joe Sobran, Jesus' Government, April 4, 2006
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws."
 
Tacitus

"I think I can say, and say with pride, that we have some legislatures that bring higher prices than any in the world."

Mark Twain 

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs - partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs."

Booker T. Washington

"Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder."

George Washington
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