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.

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

Corrupt men are always liars. Lies are their instruments, their pleasure, their solace. In time they come to believe their lies, or rather to half-believe them.

Naked power has its limitations, since power is a generator of corruption and corruption in its turn tends to dilute the effectiveness of power.

A culture is not only the language and the arts of a people. It is all their history, all their hopes for the future.

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.