At the heart of the mystery of corruption lies the desire of one man to impose his will on others to the largest possible extent.

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.

Fragmentation occurs when a civilization is in decline.

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

The United States is dangerously close to being a plutocracy. A third of the private wealth is owned by less than 5 percent of the population.

The small Hitlers are around us every day.

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.

It is no more rational to have lawyers in positions of power than it would be to have garbage collectors in positions of power. And in human terms garbage collectors would be preferable.

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.

The corrupt, when found out, become especially good moralists.

A totalitarian dictatorship cannot explain; it can only suppress.

Some werewolves are hairy on the inside.

Never give up on your journey to success, even if your feet give up on you.

I turned my ear toward the door because I heard him breathing. When you’re alone and afraid, the simple sound of the steady in and out of air being drawn by another person is good medicine.

My strength is to communicate with an audience and to know what jazz singing is capable of.

Her father was the face of her morning and night, he was everything, so saturating Havaa’s world that she could no more describe him than she could the air.

Prayer is the act by which man, detaching himself from the embarrassments of sense and nature, ascends to the true level of his destiny.

I'm still learning....learning from my great grandchildren and everyone around me. I would advise others to keep trying, stop and listen.

Some stars like to hide behind the whole idea of acting. But really good actors are not hiding at all. They're not afraid to be disliked, to be a little unsavory.

Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.

If you can't understand the blues, you don't know much