Marcus Tullius Cicero: “The Closer The Collapse Of An Empire, The Crazier Its Laws.”

“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.”

– Marcus Tullius Cicero (Source)

But thanks to reader D. N. (see comments), it turns out that azquotes.com is not correct about this quote….

– Oxford Essential Quotations (5 ed.)

Taylor Caldwell 1900–85
English-born American writer 

1. Cicero found himself frequently confounded by Antonius. Antonius heartily agreed with him that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be refilled, that public debt should be reduced, that the arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled, that assistance to foreign lands should be be curtailed lest Rome became bankrupt, that the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence, and that prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible.
   usually wrongly attributed to Cicero following Congressional Record 25 April 1968, in the form ‘The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome should become bankrupt, the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence’. However the passage is not found in Cicero’s works and appears to derive from this historical novel based on his life
   A Pillar of Iron (1965) ch. 51
2. 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 he carries his banners openly against the city. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears no traitor; he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and 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 a city; he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.
   now popularly attributed to Cicero, but not traced in his works and apparently from words spoken by him in this historical novel based on his life
   A Pillar of Iron (1965) ch. 56

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