Ambreen > Ambreen's Quotes

“Heaven doesn't only teach humans about virtue and divinity.
It also shows us about politics and corruption; and that's a fact.”
― Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity

“The devil himself can become beauty, so we are told, to corrupt mankind."
(Marco)”
― Iain Pears, An Instance of the Fingerpost

“But then the pastors and men of God can only be human,--cannot altogether be men of God; and so they have oppressed us, and burned us, and tortured us, and hence come to love palaces, and fine linen, and purple, and, alas, sometimes, mere luxury and idleness.”
― Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux

“Inevitably came the time when he angrily repudiated his former paladin Yasser Arafat. In fact, he described him to me as 'the Palestinian blend of Marshal Petaín and Papa Doc.' But the main problem, alas, remained the same. In Edward's moral universe, Arafat could at last be named as a thug and a practitioner of corruption and extortion. But he could only be identified as such to the extent that he was now and at last aligned with an American design. Thus the only truly unpardonable thing about 'The Chairman' was his readiness to appear on the White House lawn with Yitzhak Rabin and Bill Clinton in 1993. I have real knowledge and memory of this, because George Stephanopoulos—whose father's Orthodox church in Ohio and New York had kept him in touch with what was still a predominantly Christian Arab-American opinion—called me more than once from the White House to help beseech Edward to show up at the event. 'The feedback we get from Arab-American voters is this: If it's such a great idea, why isn't Said signing off on it?' When I called him, Edward was grudging and crabby. 'The old man [Arafat] has no right to sign away land.' Really? Then what had the Algiers deal been all about? How could two states come into being without mutual concessions on territory?”
― Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

“It is true that nobody is above the law,
but power can make somebody invisible.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“Newt Gingrich, buddy, the people of the United States don’t like you. And the only reason the rest of the world doesn’t despise you is because they don’t know you. Thankfully you won’t have to experience that global derision, as you have reached the pinnacle of your career as a crook—I mean politician.”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale

“Honesty, for me, is usually the worst policy imaginable.”
― Patricia Highsmith

“The mistake you make, don't you see,is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You're trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can't. One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can't put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.”
― George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying

“Political corruption, social greed, and Americanized quasi-socialism can ruin even the most wonderful places. California proved that.”
― Tiffany Madison

“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, Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn

“Power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed.”
― Wally Lamb, I Know This Much Is True

“To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.”
― G. Edward Griffin

“When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.”
― Ron Paul

“The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C. This wasn't for any religious reasons. They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.”
― Jay Leno

“It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
― Mark Twain

“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”
― John Steinbeck

“I once saw a snake having sex with a vulture, and I thought, It’s just business as usual in Washington DC.”
― Jarod Kintz, The Days of Yay are Here! Wake Me Up When They're Over.

“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
― Mahatma Gandhi

“If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?”
― George Deacon