Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Power doesn't corrupt people; people corrupt power.
Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.
Great men are almost always bad men.
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
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.
Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority...
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.
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.
The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
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.
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.
The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.
It is not power that corrupts but fear.
I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
or simply:
