Kevin Stilley

  • Home
  • Blog Posts
  • On the Air
  • Quotes
  • Site Archive

October 17, 2013 by kevinstilley

Power Corrupts – Select Quotes

Power Corrupts

.

Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.
~ Edward Abbey

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.
~ Lord Acton

My opinion is, and always has been, that absolute power intoxicates alike despots, monarchs, aristocrats, and democrats and jacobins and sans culottes.
~ John Adams

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.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.
~ Abraham Lincoln

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. NY: Vintage, 1997, page 10.

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

__________

RELATED

Master List of Great Quotes

Conservative vs. Libertarian

Expelled: A Review

Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Quotes Tagged With: Blog, corruption, corrupts, Leadership, liberty, ownership, political, Politics, power, Quotes

Recent Blog Posts

  • Discussion Questions for “The Language of God”
  • Billy Graham knew where he was going
  • Interesting quotes from “The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln” by Stephen L. Carter
  • The Bible – select quotes
  • America’s Christian Heritage
  • Christian Involvement In Politics
  • Freedom – select quotes
  • Kevin Stilley on For Christ and Culture Radio
  • Early Western Civilization classroom resources
  • Early Western Civilization Final Exam

Currently Reading

Frankenstein

Twitter Feed

Tweets by @kevinstilley

Connect With Me On Twitter

Follow_me_on_Twitter

Connect With Me On Facebook

Receive My Monthly Newsletter


Copyright © 2023 · Executive Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in