It is almost a general rule that nations do not decline gradually. Instead they fall abruptly from their greatest heights.

The game of power is played remorselessly by men who have not the slightest knowledge of, or interest in, the way ordinary people live, and the ordinary people are too terrified to protest.

For domination has nothing whatsoever to do with good government, and power as an end in itself destroys good government.

A nation's wealth is too serious a matter to be left to the wealthy. The riches of a nation belong to all, to be shared among all for the general welfare.

The corrupt, when found out, become especially good moralists.

Uncorrupted man, with God's blessing, advances across the fields of the universe as though he were walking down a country lane.

Historically the first philosopher to enquire deeply into the nature of corruption in society was Ibn Khaldun (1322-1406), whose wandering life was largely spent in the northern littoral of Africa at a time when kingdoms and sultanates were crumbling.