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.

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.

Throughout the history of Christianity, there had been a core of belief that man was not doomed to be everlastingly corrupt.

Sometimes societies die and putrefy long before they are pronounced dead, and sometimes men die of corruption long before they have taken to their deathbeds.

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

Corruption appears to be a universal phenomenon that lays its own imperious claims on the world, and therefore it is the duty of all nations to prepare themselves against its onslaught by taking proper precautions.