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.

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

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.

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

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

The corrupt man is nearly always rootless, deeply aware of his rootlessness.