Fragment LXV: Stir not a step! risk nothing! but believe

Stir not a step! risk nothing! but believe
That vows and oaths are snares, meant to deceive!
Jove is no warrant for a promise given,
Not Jove himself, nor all the gods in heaven.
Nothing is safe; no character secure,
No conduct, the most innocent and pure:
All are corrupt, the commons and the great,
Alike incapable to save the state.
The ruin of the noblest and the best
Serves for an idle ballad or a jest.
Shame is abolish’d, and, in high command,
Rage, Impudence, and Rapine rule the land.