Corrupt Power Quotes

The students I've been with these twenty years are looking for a world where it becomes a little easier to love and a lot harder to hate, where learning nonviolence means that we dedicate our hearts, minds, time, and money to a commitment that the force of love, the force of truth, the force of justice, and the force of organized resistance to corrupt power are seen as sane and the force of fists, guns, armies, and bombs insane.

The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

The force of love, the force of reunion is unstoppable.

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you!

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.

No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.

Power doesn't corrupt people; people corrupt power.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

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.

It is not power that corrupts but fear.

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.

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.

Power doesn't corrupt. It's neutral. Someone always wants to corrupt power. It's the way a shotgun is not a deadly weapon until someone chooses to use it irrationally.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

The truth was that all men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

The very essence of the Sufi spiritual tradition requires you to purify your heart, to liberate yourself from your ego and to be courageous in facing any corrupt power, injustice and oppression. Unfortunately, colonial powers pushed an agenda by using Sufism against resistance, and some ulama played that game in the past and in the present.

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.

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

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

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority...

Great men are almost always bad men.

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

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

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.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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.

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

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.