The influence over government must be shared among all the people. If every individual which composes their mass participates of the ultimate authority, the government will be safe, because the corrupting of the whole mass will exceed any private resources of wealth, and public ones cannot be provided but by levies on the people. In this case every man would have to pay his own price.
Contact with the affairs of state is one of the most corrupting of the influences to which men are exposed.
The unpublished manuscript is like an uncon-fessed sin that festers in the soul, corrupting and contaminating it.
The scapegoat has always had the mysterious power of unleashing man's ferocious pleasure in torturing, corrupting, and befouling.
Art school is a very difficult thing to run in a generous, humane way, because academic power is somehow very corrupting.
The profit motive is not only fundamental to our ability to reward shareholders and pay employees; it's fundamental to excellent journalism. Far from corrupting the craft, profits enhance it. Expansion drives diversity and diversity protects and strengthens our craft.
I had always been considered such a nonentity where human relations were concerned that the idea that I might have an influence, even a corrupting influence. . . penetrated my heart with a fierce little sting of pleasure.
Everything wonderful in appearance has been ascribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Everything ancient has some legendary tale annexed to it. The common operations of nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting everything.
I feel moderately bad about this whole thing. On the one hand, I am providing myself with urgently required survival skills. Other lessons in this series include Shoplifting, Beating People Up, Picking Locks, Climbing Trees, Driving, Housebreaking, Dumpster Diving, and How to Use Oddball Things like Venetian Blinds and Garbage Can Lids as Weapons. On the other hand, I’m corrupting my poor innocent little self. I sigh. Somebody’s got to do it.
. . . it is a corrupting thing to live one's real life in secret. One should live with the stream of life, not against it.
