Robert Payne Quotes

• Fragmentation occurs when a civilization is in decline.

  Robert Payne

  Civilization, Decline, Fragmentation

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Liars, Lying, Believe

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  28 Copy quote

• Naked power has its limitations, since power is a generator of corruption and corruption in its turn tends to dilute the effectiveness of power.

  Robert Payne

  Effectiveness, Naked, Corruption

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• The small Hitlers are around us every day.

  Robert Payne

  Relationship

  Robert Payne (2016). “The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler”, p.621, Brick Tower Press

  6 Copy quote

• Historically the first philosopher to enquire deeply into the nature of corruption in society was Ibn Khaldun (1322-1406), whose wandering life was largely spent in the northern littoral of Africa at a time when kingdoms and sultanates were crumbling.

  Robert Payne

  Firsts, Crumbling, Kingdoms

  "The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America". Book by Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli, p. 139), 1975.

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Position Of Power, Would Be, Garbage

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  5 Copy quote

• A nation's wealth is too serious a matter to be left to the wealthy. The riches of a nation belong to all, to be shared among all for the general welfare.

  Robert Payne

  Serious, Matter, Riches

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• It is precisely when we help one another that we gain our victories over corruption, but the victory is assured only when we help one another with all our strength.

  Robert Payne

  Victory, Gains, Helping

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Payne

  Men

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Payne

  Country, Blessing, Men

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  8 Copy quote

• A culture is not only the language and the arts of a people. It is all their history, all their hopes for the future.

  Robert Payne

  Art, People, Culture

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Payne

  Fall, Height, Decline

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Payne

  Men, Belief, Christianity

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Lying, Heart, Men

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  United States, Population, Wealth

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Men, Games, People

  "The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America". Book by Robert Payne, "A Vision of the Uncorrupted Society", p. 279, 1975.

  4 Copy quote

• The books of men have their day and grow obsolete. God's word is like Himself, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.

  Robert Payne

  Book, Men, Yesterday

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Age, Faces, Doe

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Military, Oligarchy, Wealth

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Payne

  Long, Bored, Empires

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

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

  Robert Payne

  Found, Good Moral, Moralist

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  5 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  World, Corruption, Precaution

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• 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.

  Robert Payne

  Taken, Men, Long

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  4 Copy quote

• A totalitarian dictatorship cannot explain; it can only suppress.

  Robert Payne

  Dictatorship

  Robert Payne (1975). “The Corrupt Society: From Ancient Greece to Present-Day America”, Praeger Publishers

  5 Copy quote

• Nietzsche's accomplishment is that he permits us to see corruption from the inside.

  Robert Payne

  Accomplishment, Corruption, Permit

  "The Corrupt Society - From Ancient Greece To Present-Day America". Book by Pierre Stephen Robert Payne (Lord Acton, Nietzsche, and Dostoyevsky, p. 187), 1975.

  4 Copy quote

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