Power Corrupts Quotes - Page 3

• The will to power, as the modern age from Hobbes to Nietzsche understood it, far from being a characteristic of the strong, is, like envy and greed, among the vices of the weak, and possibly even their most dangerous one. Power corrupts indeed when the weak band together in order to ruin the strong, but not before.

  Hannah Arendt

  Strong, Order, Envy

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• If power corrupts, weakness in the seat of power, with its constant necessity of deals and bribes and compromising arrangements,corrupts even more.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Power, Weakness, Compromise

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2017). “Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945”, p.551, Random House

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• The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.

  Frank Herbert

  Mistake, Taken, Thinking

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• Unlimited power corrupts the possessor; and this I know, that, where law ends, there tyranny begins.

  William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

  Law, Ends, Unlimited

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• The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its antihumanity.

  Eric Hoffer

  Inhumanity, Absolute Power, Inherent

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Then there is the worst part of Christianity, which is awful: power, corruption, manipulation... But then again, these feature are ever present in any organization.

  Bruce Kent

  Organization, Awful, Manipulation

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• This book will prove the following ten facts: 1. A Goon is a being who melts into the foreground and sticks there. 2. Pigs have wings, making them hard to catch. 3. All power corrupts, but we need electricity. 4. When an irresistible force meets an immovable object, the result is a family fight. 5. Music does not always sooth the troubled beast. 6. An Englishman's home is his castle. 7. The female of the species is more deadly than the male. 8. One black eye deserves another. 9. Space is the final frontier, and so is the sewage farm. 10. It pays to increase your word power.

  Diana Wynne Jones

  Book, Home, Eye

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• If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God??

  George Deacon

  Funny, Badass, Humor

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• Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

  William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham

  Government, Political, Mind

  William Pitt (1st earl of Chatham.) (1839). “Correspondence, ed. by [W.S. Taylor and J.H. Pringle] the executors of his son John, earl of Chatham”, p.387

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• It is true that power corrupts. The hope at the polling stations and the actions of the elected representatives, unfortunately, often turn to be opposite. The power of ballot turns into the power of wallet. Some law-makers become law-breakers.

  Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj

  Law, Opposites, Action

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• Power corrupts, and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

  Vinton Cerf

  Powerpoint

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• If power corrupts, the reverse is also true; persecution corrupts the victims though perhaps in subtler and more tragic ways.

  Arthur Koestler

  Israel, Way, Victim

  Arthur Koestler, Harold Harris (1975). “Astride the two cultures: Arthur Koestler at 70”, Not Avail

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• Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.

  John Lehman

  Power, Confusion, Political

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• The culture of death is imposed by economic and political interests, the arrogance of power, corruption. I blame the first world for having taken our riches for so many years. I am speaking of the superpowers that dominate the life of the world. More concretely, the World Bank, the IMF. Those that have caused and tolerated the death of our people, those responsible for the plundering of the third world. Silence is also part of repression.

  Rigoberta Menchu

  Taken, Years, People

  Source: www.indians.org

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• It's very hard to operate on a general philosophy of power. They say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I don't agree with that. I think you have to be corrupted to be corrupted by power.

  Mark Pellegrino

  Philosophy, Thinking, Agree

  Source: collider.com

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• Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

  Robert Caro

  Believe, Corrupt Power, Absolute Power

  "Robert Caro: a life with LBJ and the pursuit of power" by Chris McGreal, www.theguardian.com. June 10, 2012.

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• To assume all the powers is not good for anybody. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All those experiments have a bad ending.

  Rafael Correa

  Assuming, Absolute Power, Experiments

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• Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely.

  Adlai Stevenson I

  Work, Power

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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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• If knowledge is power and power corrupt, does knowledge corrupt?

  James Moore

  Intelligence, Doe, Knowledge Is Power

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• A small amount of power corrupts a small man absolutely. A little knowledge is dangerous to a little man. To a great man only great knowledge is dangerous.

  Leonard J. V. Compagno

  Men, Littles, Dangerous

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• We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression.

  Eric Hoffer

  Winning, Generosity, Weakness

  Eric Hoffer (1963). “The Ordeal of Change”

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• What worries me most about Trump, other than all of the other crazy things, is that I believe that he wants power and I believe from my point of view that power corrupts, and that the whole purpose of our founding fathers and America was to contain power.

  Rand Paul

  Father, Crazy, Believe

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

  Lord Acton

  Office, Political, Corrupt Power

  1887 Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 Apr.

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• You know, 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'? It's the same with powerlessness. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. Einstein said everything had changed since the atom was split, except the way we think. We have to think anew.

  Studs Terkel

  Thinking, Atoms, Splits

  "Voice of America". Interview with Oliver Burkeman, www.theguardian.com. March 1, 2002.

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