"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 murder
is less to fear."
-- Marcus Tullius Cicero 42 B.C.
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator
Source: Speech in the Roman Senate
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