Power Corrupts - Select Quotes
June 15, 2008
~ Edward Abbey
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
~ Lord Acton
Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
~ John Adams
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
~ David Brin
The Christian’s goal is not power, but justice. We are to seek to make the institutions of power just, without being corrupted by the process necessary to do this.
~ Charles Colson
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?
~ George Deacon
In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance and suspicion are the fruits of weakness.
~ Eric Hoffer, in The Ordeal of Courage
I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.
~ Elia Kazan
When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
~ John F. Kennedy
Power - Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. But it rocks absolutely, too.
~ Larry Kerston
Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.
~ John F. Lehman, Jr.
Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.
~ William Pitt
Access to power must be confined to those who are not in love with it.
~ Plato
Politicians cannot be pure, by definition. Their motives are always mixed. Ambition, power, public adulation, always figure in somehow. Means get confused with ends.
~ Robert Reich, in Locked in the Cabinet
Power does not corrupt men; but fools, if they get into a position of power, corrupt it.
~ George Bernard Shaw
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?
~ Harry Shearer
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts, perhaps the fear of the loss of power.
~ John Steinbeck
Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely.
~ Adlai Stevenson
Rule your desires lest your desires rule you.
~ Publius Syrus
Too much liberty corrupts us all.
~ Terence
All Hollywood corrupts; and absolute Hollywood corrupts absolutely.
~ Edmund Wilson
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