# CHAPTER 42 — How Easily Men May Be Corrupted

It should also be noted, in this matter of the decemvirate, how easily men may be corrupted and how they may transform themselves and give themselves a completely different nature, no matter how good and well educated they may be: consider how the young men whom Appius had chosen to surround him began to be friends of tyranny for the little bit of profit it provided them; or how Quintus Fabius, one of the second group of decemvirs, while an excellent individual, was blinded by a bit of ambition and persuaded by the wickedness of Appius to change his good habits into the worst and became like Appius. Once this is carefully studied, it will make all lawgivers in republics or kingdoms more quick to restrain human appetites and to deprive people of all hope of being able to do evil with impunity.