The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.
TacitusRead
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
Interpretation
What this quote means
In a corrupt state, there are numerous laws that serve little purpose.
The quote by Tacitus suggests that in a society riddled with corruption, the proliferation of laws often becomes a mechanism for furthering that corruption rather than serving justice or the common good. It reflects the idea that an abundance of legislation can become ineffective and may even exacerbate misconduct, highlighting the paradox of legal systems in morally compromised environments.
Themes
CorruptionLawsPoliticsSocietyJustice
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate, this quote could be used to illustrate the ineffectiveness of laws in a corrupt government.
More from Tacitus
All quotes βIn private enterprises men may advance or recede, whereas they who aim at empire have no alternative between the highest success and utter downfall.
TacitusRead
Great empires are not maintained by timidity.
TacitusRead
Things are not to be judged good or bad merely because the public think so.
TacitusRead
So obscure are the greatest events, as some take for granted any hearsay, whatever its source, others turn truth into falsehood, and both errors find encouragement with posterity.
TacitusRead
The brave and bold persist even against fortune; the timid and cowardly rush to despair though fear alone.
TacitusRead
Similar quotes
Having been blacklisted from working in television during the McCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans. When government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far.
Studs TerkelRead
I still passionately support comprehensive immigration reform legislation with a path to full and equal citizenship.
Hillary ClintonRead
Struggles do not end when countries attempt the transition to democracy.
Hillary ClintonRead
You just don't, in the 21st century, behave in 19th-century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pre-text.
John F. KerryRead
Democrats consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them, therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent.
Thomas JeffersonRead
How can wealth persuade poverty to use its political freedom to keep wealth in power? Here lies the whole art of Conservative politics in the twentieth century.
Aneurin BevanRead