What we now have is the freedom which attends decadence, or the decadence which attends freedom.
Misgovernment is of four kinds, often in combination. They are: 1) tyranny or oppression, of which history provides so many well-known examples that they do not need citing; 2) excessive ambition, such as Athens' attempted conquest of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War, Philip II's of England via the Armada, Germany's twice-attempted rule of Europe by a self-conceived master race, Japan's bid for an empire of Asia; 3) incompetence or decadence, as in the case of the late Roman empire, the last Romanovs and the last imperial dynasty of China; and finally 4) folly or perversity.
When the storytelling goes bad in a society, the result is decadence.
Religion is the biggest influence on the intellect and the decadence of a people.
Ultimately we must concern ourselves with pulling out by its roots the decadence that controls our culture, the profit motive that controls our culture.
In all nations an exceptional man exists that compensates the deficiencies of the remainder. In those moments, when humanity is found collectively in a state of decadence, there always remain those exceptional beings as point of reference.
The glossy surface of our civilization hides a real intellectual decadence.
The difference between our decadence and the Russians is that while theirs is brutal, ours is apathetic.
I love chess, but it's the height of decadence.
For me, I wanted to create something that's much more driven by a type of selfishness, a type of decadence.
The history of prevailing status quos shows decay and decadence infecting the opulent materialism of the Haves. The spiritual life of the Haves is a ritualistic justification of their possessions.
