Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.

Gibbon’s aphorism turns a moral commonplace on its head: instead of treating corruption solely as a sign of decay, it frames it as evidence that a polity possesses real constitutional liberty. Where power is limited, contested, and distributed among institutions, officeholders must bargain, build coalitions, and compete for influence—conditions that can foster patronage, bribery, and “corrupt” dealing. In a pure despotism, by contrast, there is less need for such transactions because decisions flow from a single will. The sting of the remark is double: liberty’s safeguards can generate venality, and the presence of corruption may indicate not freedom’s absence but its messy, human operation.