#corrupt

Hidden away behind the closed doors of aristocratic and bourgeois privilege, concealed under those ultra-respectable masks of black frock coat and veil, the green glow of corruption flickers into sight, steadies, and spreads everywhere, fostered by Lorrain's horrified and complicitous gaze. This decadent detective is at one with the criminal he pursues, acknowledging openly that the representation of corruption is one of the most pleasurable forms that corruption can take. In this enterprise, art is the mask that both exposes and conceals culpability. ↗

— Jennifer Birkett

#corruption #crime #criminal #culpability #decadence

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? ↗

— Harry Shearer

#absolute power #absolute power corrupts #absolutely #corrupts #does

To be surrounded by sixty people who make your life miserable is to be at a family reunion. But to be surrounded by 600,000 people who make the whole world miserable is to live in Washington DC. 
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#corruption #family #family-reunion #miserable #misery

Get into Parliament, make tiresome speeches; you will have great offers; do not accept them at first, then do: then make great provision for yourself and family, and then call yourself an independent country gentleman. ↗

— Hans Stanley

#corruption #family

Politically, Republicans and Democrats are at opposite ends. One’s a burp and the other’s a fart.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#corruption #democrats #funny #government #humor

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

#fear #losing #power #power corrupts #scourge

To me, my husband was my son’s murderer. He was also my daughter’s molester. A parasite nibbling on the Holy Book, he was Lucifer, holding me by the throat and driving me to sin every night. He was Bhai’s destroyer, Amma Sain’s tormentor, Ma’s humbler and the people’s exploiter. He was the rapist of orphans and the fiend that fed on the weak. But over and above all this, he was known to be the man closest to Allah, the one who could reach Him and save us. ↗

— Tehmina Durrani

#exploitation #freedom #hypocrisy #murderer #religion

A DEAD STATESMAN I could not dig: I dared not rob: Therefore I lied to please the mob. Now all my lies are proved untrue And I must face the men I slew. What tale shall serve me here among Mine angry and defrauded young? from EPITAPHS OF THE WAR 1914-18 ↗

— Rudyard Kipling

#deceit #dishonesty #irony #lies #politics

If you think Hollywood is depressing and corrupt, politics is really depressing and corrupt -- and fueled even more than Hollywood by money -- if that's possible. ↗

— Ben Affleck

#hollywood #money #politics #money

I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them. ↗

— William Hazlitt

#enemies #friends #good-nature #injustice #lies