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Quotes of the Day for 27 October 2003 - Corruption

It was on this day in 1871 that William Macy Tweed was arrested for theft of public funds at New York City. "Boss" Tweed had ruled Tammany Hall, and thus the government of the city, for a dozen years, controlling elections and rigging city purchasing such that he and his loyal supporters pocketed something between $30 and $200 millions. Even though Tweed spent most of the rest of his life in prison, the corrupt Tammany Hall operation continued until the early '30s, and made a comeback in the '50s.

When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken.
     - Benjamin Disraeli, 1804 - 1881

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.
     - George Bernard Shaw, 1856 - 1950

The people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature.
     - James A. Garfield, 1831 - 1881

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
     - Lord John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1834 - 1902

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
     - Publius Cornelius Tacitus

Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.
     - John Lehman, Secretary of US Navy, 1981-1987

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