Absolute Power Quotes

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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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• When one reaches absolute power, one loses total contact with reality.

  Gabriel Garcia Marquez

  Power, Reality, Contact

  19 Copy quote
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  Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Leadership, Wisdom

  913 Copy quote

• Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.

  Frank Herbert

  Power, Political, Doe

  26 Copy quote

• Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.

  Barry Goldwater

  Heaven, Liberty, Doe

  Speech Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination, delivered 16 July 1964, San Francisco

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• Absolute power can only be supported by error, ignorance and prejudice.

  Lord Chesterfield

  Ignorance, Government, Errors

  16 Copy quote

• If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?

  Harry Shearer

  Power, Political, Doe

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

  70 Copy quote

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• Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Power, Stones, Anarchy

  129 Copy quote

• Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

  Eric Hoffer

  Inspirational, Faith, Atheist

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

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• Great men are almost always bad men.

  Lord Acton

  Men, Corrupt Power, Power Corrupts

  1887 Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 3 Apr.

  48 Copy quote

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• 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.

  Lord Acton

  Kings, Power, Men

  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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• Numerous politicians have seized absolute power and muzzled the press. Never in history has the press seized absolute power and muzzled the politicians.

  David Brinkley

  Political, Politics, Journalism

  48 Copy quote

• 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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• No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.

  Thomas Paine

  Country, People, Matter

  Thomas Paine, John P. Kaminski (2002). “Citizen Paine: Thomas Paine's Thoughts on Man, Government, Society, and Religion”, p.81, Rowman & Littlefield

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• The entire history of mankind is, in any case, nothing but a prolonged fight to the death for the conquest of universal prestige and absolute power.

  Albert Camus

  Fighting, History, Prestige

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt”, p.139, Vintage

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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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• 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, Power Corrupts

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

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• Absolute power turns its possessors not into a God but an anti-God. For God turned clay into men, while the absolute despot turns men into clay.

  Eric Hoffer

  Power, Men, Clay

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• Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity.

  Eric Hoffer

  Sheep, People, Humanity

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

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• No human being, man, woman, or child, may safely be entrusted to the power of another; for no human being may safely be trusted with absolute power.

  Suzanne La Follette

  Children, Power, Men

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• Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

  Eric Hoffer

  Lying, Power, Government

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

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

  Eric Hoffer

  Power Corrupts, Inhumanity, Inherent

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

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• Power kills, absolute power kills absolutely.

  Rudolph Rummel

  Absolutes

  "Death by Government". Book by Rudolph Rummel, 1944.

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• God cannot approve of a system of servitude, in which the master is guilty of assuming absolute power - of assuming God's place and relation towards his fellow-men.

  Gerrit Smith

  Men, Fellow Man, Assuming

  Gerrit Smith (1837). “Letter of Gerrit Smith to Rev. James Smylie: Of the State of Mississippi”, p.11

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

  George Deacon

  Funny, Badass, Humor

  46 Copy quote