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 totalitarian dictatorship cannot explain; it can only suppress.

The small Hitlers are around us every day.

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.

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.

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

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.