Andrew Jackson Quotes

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.

Beware of all men who would turn the tasks and the necessities of the nation to their own private profit or use them for the building up of private power.

The great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes.

There's the stench of money around this building [the Capitol].

Resist the temptation to exploit power for personal or group interests.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

I believe that cronyism is nothing more than welfare for the rich and powerful, and should be abolished.

[Lobbying] has reached such a position of power that it threatens the government itself. Its size, its power, its capacity for evil; its greed, trickery, deception and fraud condemn it to the death it deserves.

All power will infallibly draw wealth to itself by some means or other.

Washington is rigged to favor people who have an army of lobbyists.

The wealthiest in this country have never had it so good. They want more, and more, and more, and more, and they don’t care how many children they have to step on to get it..

The financial interests have captured the government institutions.

Sex and money always prowl in the penumbra of power.

The use of such means and such agents [paid lobbyists] will have the effect to subject the State governments to the combined capital of wealthy corporations, and produce universal corruption, commencing with the representative and ending with the elector. Speculators in legislation, public and private, a compact corps of venal solicitors, vending their secret influences, will infest the capital of the Union and of every State, till corruption shall become the normal condition of the body politic.

Honestly, the egos and the quest and thirst for power is very prevalent in Washington.

The average guy doesn't have an army of lobbyists and lawyers working on his behalf every day in the White House.

I'm not an expert on politics, but there's a bunch of bad people at the top who care about lining their own pockets before creating a society that looks after the vulnerable.

Every economy exists, no matter what the level of democracy, has elements of crony capitalism. It's - given human nature and given the democratic structures, which we all, I assume, adhere to, that is an inevitable consequence.

The big guys, the big dogs, are going to own everything from the White House to the courthouse.

There are no generalizations in American politics that vested selfishness cannot cut through.

There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress.

I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

For there is no defense for a man who, in the excess of his wealth, has kicked the great altar of Justice out of sight.

As governor, I don't want my fair share. I want more than my fair share.

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.