They used to abuse us actually ... If you stuck together in solidarity you can defeat them. Besides that, I learned that the politicians worked with the coal companies. I found out that the union officials were working with the coal companies. I also found out that the Catholic hierarchy was working with the officials. Barbara Kopple, Harlan Country USA ***** old miner, 1976
And I just think that it’ll take a little time for kids to start doing the duties that they’re supposed to do, which is challenge things, like corruption. Kurt Cobain, recorded interview 1992, often paraphrased as ‘The duty of youth is to challenge corruption’
John Paul I had seen corruption in the Vatican Bank first hand. Brad Meltzer’s Decoded s2e3: Vatican, History 2012
Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty. Edward Gibbon, 1737-94, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch21
The only way to combat corruption says Stephen Levitt is to change rules to undo corrupt incentives. Unleash more investigative reporters and develop strong protections for whistleblowers. Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner, Freakonomics, Sky Atlantic 2010; viz also novel
What keeps us from seeing corruption are our illusions that our economy is a rational system, a free market open to all. ibid.
The problem of corruption – you’ve heard about the mess in Washington. Richard Nixon, political broadcast
All things are corrupt when men are prone to evil. Ovid
The more corrupt the state, the more laws. Publius Cornelius Tacitus
Like most people who live in India, I complain about corruption, but know that I can live with corrupt men. It is the honest ones I secretly worry about. Aravind Adiga
These kind of knaves I know, which in this plainness
Harbour more craft and more corrupter ends
Than twenty silly-ducking observants
That stretch their duties nicely. William Shakespeare, The History of King Lear II ii @97, Cornwall
Corruption wins not more than honesty. William Shakespeare & John Fletcher, All Is True/Henry VIII III ii 445, Cardinal Wolsley
O! my fortunes have
Corrupted honest men. William Shakespeare, Anthony & Cleopatra II v 16
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. David Brin
I either want less corruption or more chance to participate in it. Ashleigh Brilliant
A government for protecting business only is but a carcass and soon falls by its own corruption and decay. Amos Bronson Alcott
All institutions are prone to corruption and the vices of their members. Morris West
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
In all institutions from which the cold wind of open criticism is excluded, an innocent corruption begins to grow like a mushroom – for example in senates and learned societies. Friedrich Nietzsche
Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy as they undoubtedly are today. Mahatma Gandhi
In 1990 when Mister [George W] Bush was a director of Harken Energy, he received this memo from company lawyers warning directors not to sell stock if they had unfavourable information (‘it would not be advisable that they presently sell any of their shares’) about the company. One week later he sold $848,000 worth of Harken stock. Two months later Harken announced losses of more than $23 million dollars. News report, cited Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11
Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation. Atifete Jahjaga
Money and corruption are ruining the land, crooked politicians betray the working man, pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, and we’re tired of hearing promises that we know they’ll never keep. Ray Davies
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
The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst. David Hume
Corruption has its own motivations, and one has to thoroughly study that phenomenon and eliminate the foundations that allow corruption to exist. Eduard Shevardnadze
If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already. Bob Marley
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts ... perhaps the fear of a loss of power. John Steinbeck
Well, boys we got ’em. Fair and square. Felony 2013 starring Joel Edgerton & Tom Wilkinson & Jay Courtney & Sarah Roberts & Melissa George et al, director Matthew Saville, rozzers on the lash
Sorry about that, detective. Drive safe, mate. ibid. rozzer to drunk rozzer at wheel
We’re all in it. The whole force, mate. I stuck my neck out from the get-go. ibid. Wilkinson
Don’t stay anything. We can live with this. ibid.
All things can corrupt perverse minds. Ovid
You see, corruption is part of us. All of us. The very heart of us. Gorky Park 1983 starring William Hurt & Lee Marvin & Brian Dennehy & Ian Brennan & Joanna Pacula & Alexie Sayle & Michael Elphick & Richard Griffiths & Rikki Fulton & Alexander Knox & Ian McDiamid et al, director Michael Apted, Marvin
Corruption in Tunisia is getting worse. Whether it’s cash, services, land, property, or yes, even your yacht. President Ben Ali’s family is rumoured to covet it and reportedly gets what it wants. US diplomatic cable; viz Wikileaks 2011
Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption. Joe Biden
The [Robert] Maxwell connection demonstrated how quickly some predatory Western businessmen linked up with proto-oligarchs from Eastern Europe to internationalise the asset-stripping of the new democracies. Maxwell was in the vanguard of a criminal industry that would run out of control in the 1990s – money laundering. Together with Prime Minister Lukanov, Maxwell arranged the transfer of $2 billion from Bulgaria into Western tax havens – subsequent Bulgarian governments were unable to trace what happened to this cash, although we do know that it did not end up in the Daily Mirror’s pension fund from which Maxwell was also stealing hundreds of millions of pounds at the same time. Misha Glenny, McMafia
In the 1990s, the oligarchs and gangsters quite clearly controlled the Kremlin. Under Vladimir Putin, who systematically used popular hostility to the oligarchs to strengthen his political position as President, the situation was reversed. It does not follow that Putin and friends persecuted criminals or dispensed with corrupt practices. On the contrary, they flourished as before but they were now much more carefully controlled. ibid.
Nigeria’s passage into the global market, floating atop the world’s sixth largest oil reserves, has created one of history’s most divided societies in terms of income distribution. ibid.
The Nigerian elite has become rich even beyond many Westerners’ imagination. Since the 1970s, they have been sucking the profits from the country's oil resources almost directly from the wells and into their pockets. ibid.
With the petrodollar rush came huge contracts for public works, which were handed out to Western companies that were colluding in the bribery process. ibid.