Power And Corruption Quotes

• Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

  John Steinbeck

  Fear, Loss, Power

  "The Short Reign of Pippin IV". Book by John Steinbeck, p. 102, 1957.

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• Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.

  Frank Herbert

  Power, Corruption, Suspects

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• Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Power, Men, Intellectual

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• I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Money, Hands

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• One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.

  Carl Sagan

  Taken, Science, Long

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.314, Ballantine Books

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  Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

  Lord Acton

  Inspirational, Leadership, Work

  Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 April 1887, in Louise Creighton 'Life and Letters of Mandell Creighton' (1904) vol. 1, ch. 13.

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• Crime is contagious....if the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  War, Government, Law

  Olmstead v. United States (dissenting opinion) (1928)

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• Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Inspirational, Funny, Money

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Parliament of Whores: A Lone Humorist Attempts to Explain the Entire U.S. Government”, p.24, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Inspirational, Motivational, Fear

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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  Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!

  Pericles

  Inspirational, Trust, Witty

  "American Voters Suffer Learned Helplessness" by Andrea Chalupa, bigthink.com. September 7, 2012.

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• 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

  Power, Corruption, Favourite

  David Brin (1997). “The Postman”, GuildAmerica Books

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• They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Happiness, Peace

  Benjamin Franklin, William-Temple Franklin (1818). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of (the Same), Continued to the Time of His Death by William Temple Franklin. - London, H. Colburn 1818”, p.270

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• The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Tyrants

  Frederick Douglass, Philip Sheldon Foner, Yuval Taylor (1999). “Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings”, p.367, Chicago Review Press

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• Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

  Eric Hoffer

  Work, Power, Weakness

  Eric Hoffer (1996). “The Passionate State of Mind”

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• Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

  Frederick Douglass

  Freedom, Power, Tyrants

  Speech, Canandaigua, N.Y., 4 Aug. 1857

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• Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Philosophical, Government

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• The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

  James Madison

  Truth, Men, Presidential

  James Madison's notes on the debates in the Federal Convention, avalon.law.yale.edu. July 11, 1787.

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  It is not power that corrupts but fear.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Wielding Power, Corrupt Power, Power Corrupts

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Power, Political, Politics

  1971 In The Listener.

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• All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

  George Orwell

  Funny, Sarcastic, Sarcasm

  Animal Farm ch. 10 (1945) See Bierce 141

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• It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.

  Eric Hoffer

  Spring, Winning, Power

  "The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms". Book by Eric Hoffer. Section 42, 1955.

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• Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

  Lord Acton

  Exercise, Men, Influence And Power

  "Historical Essays and Studies". Book by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, oll.libertyfund.org. 1907.

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• Arbitrary power has seldom... been introduced in any country at once. It must be introduced by slow degrees, and as it were step by step.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Country, Power, Degrees

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• Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

  John F. Kennedy

  Country, War, Power

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• I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

  Joe Eszterhas

  Corruption, Power Corruption, Fascinated

  "The Hollywood hitman". Interview with Ed Vulliamy, www.theguardian.com. August 19, 2000.

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