All is forgiven to kings and popes. History grants them immunity, even a full pardon, even when they admit their crimes and glory in them.

Long before the empire had reached its greatest extent, the Romans were bored by it.

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

It is no more rational to have lawyers in positions of power than it would be to have garbage collectors in positions of power. And in human terms garbage collectors would be preferable.

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

The second corruption of the state is oligarchy (oligos = few), in which the military elite is narrowed down to a few ruling families of immense wealth and prestige, who now openly flaunt their wealth and possessions.

A totalitarian dictatorship cannot explain; it can only suppress.