Lust For Power Quotes

• The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.

  Tacitus

  Passion, Heart, Lust

  91 Copy quote

• The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.

  Erich Fromm

  Power, Lust, Weakness

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Escape from Freedom”, p.166, Open Road Media

  116 Copy quote

  Show source

• The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.

  H. L. Mencken

  Peace, Freedom, War

  117 Copy quote

• Their insatiable lust for power is only equaled by their incurable impotence in exercising it.

  Winston Churchill

  Exercise, Power, Lust

  16 Copy quote

• Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Drinking, Ignorance, Stupid People

  P. J. O'Rourke (2007). “Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer”, p.110, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  49 Copy quote

  Show source

• Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.

  Ayn Rand

  Weed, Power, Lust

  Ayn Rand (2016). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.798, Hamilton Books

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power has destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which truly belongs to us all. We must not let it happen again.

  Carl Sagan

  Truth, Ignorance, People

  16 Copy quote

• Chief among the forces affecting political folly is lust for power, named by Tacitus as "the most flagrant of all the passions." Because it can only be satisfied by power over others, government is its favorite field of exercise. Business offers a kind of power, but only to the very successful at the top, and without the dominion and titles and red carpets and motorcycle escorts of public office.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Passion, Successful, Exercise

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2011). “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam”, p.405, Random House

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.

  Thucydides

  Party, Passion, Ambition

  Thucydides, Victor Davis Hanson, Robert B. Strassler (2008). “The Landmark Thucydides”, p.200, Simon and Schuster

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates.

  Frank Chodorov

  Peace, Giving Up, War

  19 Copy quote

• It is a mistake, that a lust for power is the mark of a great mind; for even the weakest have been captivated by it; and for minds of the highest order, it has no charms.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Mistake, Power, Order

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.88

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Considering the natural lust for power so inherent in man, I fear the thirst of power will prevail to oppress the people.

  George Mason

  Wisdom, Men, People

  40 Copy quote

• And fearless minds climb soonest unto crowns.

  William Shakespeare

  Fearless, Mind, Crowns

  1592 Richard of Gloucester. HenryVI PartThree, act 4, sc.8, l.62.

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man has but little heeded the advice of the wise men. He has been - fatefully, if not willingly - less virtuous, less constant, less rational, less peaceful than he knows how to be, than he is fully capable of being. He has been led astray from the ways of peace and brotherhood by his addiction to concepts and attitudes of narrow nationalism, racial and religious bigotry, greed and lust for power.

  Ralph Bunche

  Wise, Wisdom, Religious

  51 Copy quote

• Valuing knowledge above all else results in a lust for power, and that leads men into dark and empty places.

  Veronica Roth

  Dark, Men, Lust

  Veronica Roth (2014). “Divergent Series Ultimate Four-Book Collection: Divergent; Insurgent; Allegiant; Four”, p.24, Harper Collins

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Ubuntu is not a biblical concept but an ancient African one. Nevertheless it falls back on one simple thing: that humans have been created for togetherness, and what drives us apart is greed, lust for power, and a sense of exclusion, but those are aberrations.

  Allan Boesak

  Philosophy, Fall, Biblical

  Source: reflections.yale.edu

  117 Copy quote

  Show source

• Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.

  Tacitus

  Passion, Justice, Lust

  "Annales". Book by Tacitus, XV. 53,

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.

  Leo Tolstoy

  Power, Men, Order

  10 Copy quote

• We are all members of the same flawed species. Putting our moral vision into practice means imposing our will on others. The human lust for power and esteem, coupled with its vulnerability to self-deception and self-righteousness, makes that an invitation to a calamity, all the worse when the power is directed at a goal as quixotic as eradicating human self-interest.

  Steven Pinker

  Mean, Self, Practice

  24 Copy quote

• The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Yield

  Thomas Jefferson (2015). “Selected letters of Thomas Jefferson”, p.5, Lulu.com

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Corruption and envy and lust for power. Cruelty and coldness. A vicious probing curiousity. Pure, poisonous, toxic malice. You have never from your earliest years shown a shred of compassion for sympathy or kindness without calculating how it would return to your advantage. You have tortured and killed without regret or hesitation; you have betrayed and intrigued and gloried in your treachery. You are a cess-pit of moral filth.

  Philip Pullman

  Kindness, Regret, Compassion

  Philip Pullman (2007). “The Amber Spyglass”, Knopf Books for Young Readers

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Some things transcend politics and policy and the lust for power. Truth, honesty, integrity, decency and fairness are immutable values. They are the ethical substance of life. They ought to be cherished. To sell them out is to sell one's soul.

  Michael Short

  Leadership, Honesty, Integrity

  15 Copy quote

• My brother is undoubtedly arrogant," Tyrion Lannister replied. "My father is the soul of avarice, and my sweet sister Cersei lusts for power with every waking breath. I, however, am innocent as a little lamb. Shall I bleat for you?

  George R. R. Martin

  Sweet, Brother, Father

  George R. R. Martin (2012). “George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series): A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and and A Dance with Dragons”, p.314, Bantam

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• People despise the lust for power that originates from a craving for homage and for the attributes of power.

  Konstantin Ushinsky

  Freedom, People, Lust

  9 Copy quote

• It is only when it takes the form of physical addiction that sex is evil. It is also evil when it manifests itself as a way of satisfying the lust for power or the climber's craving for position and social distinction.

  Aldous Huxley

  Sex, Evil, Addiction

  Aldous Huxley (1937). “Ends and Means: An Inquiry Into the Nature of Ideals and Into the Methods Employed for Their Realization”, p.358, Transaction Publishers

  5 Copy quote

  Show source