A nation can survive its fools, and even the
ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from
within.
An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for
he is known and carries his banner openly.
But the traitor moves amongst those within
the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling
through all the alleys, heard in the very halls
of government itself.
For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks
in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears
their face and their arguments, he appeals to
the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all
men.
He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly
and unknown in the night to undermine the
pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so
that it can no longer resist.
A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the
plague.'
- Cicero, Roman statesman and lawyer.
Via Steven Morson
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