#corrupt

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. ↗

— Lord Acton

#absolute #absolute power #absolute power corrupts #absolutely #corrupt

We must take the money out of politics, and end psychopathic, self-destructive government and corporate madness. ↗

— Bryant McGill

#improvement #love #peace #understanding #unity

They were still all beautiful and there was still enchantment and wonder, but she had crossed a line and now the fairy tale was green with corruption and evil. ↗

— Stephen King

#corruption #evil #fairytale #horror #beauty

Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become a study for archaeologists...but it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio. ↗

— Lafcadio Hearn

#death #life #new-orleans #nola #death

Our institutions are too big; they represent not the best but the worst characteristics of human beings. By submitting to huge hierarchies of power, we gain freedom from personal responsibility for what we do and are forced to do - the seduction of it - but we lose the dignity of being real men and women. Power corrupts; attracts the worst and corrupts the best. ... Refuse to participate in evil; insist on taking part in what is healthy, generous, and responsible. Stand up, speak out, and when necessary fight back. Get down off the fence and lend a hand, grab a-hold, be a citizen - not a subject. ↗

— Edward Abbey

#ninety-nine-percent #ows #power #society #freedom

Power in the hands of the reformer is no less potentially corrupting than in the hands of the oppressor. ↗

— Derrick A. Bell

#oppression #power #reformers #social-justice #life

No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#music #nonfiction #politics #music

Then there was Buddha meddling in, telling all of the Hindu, Hebrew, Christian and Islamic gods and demons that they were nothing more than unenlightened fear induced figments of nirvana-starved mortals. ↗

— Andrew James Pritchard

#political-corruption #religion #revolt #religion

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

#capitalism #corruption #government #history #oppression