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

Conquest, tyranny, treachery, and the clash of cultures bring about corrupt societies, and so does old age. Sometimes the five faces of corruption are visible at the same time.

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.

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.

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

The small Hitlers are around us every day.

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