“Don’t worry. Everyone who left will come back. They’re just afraid of change.”
“The regime got scared because if these opponents had reached Tehran, they would have freed those who represented a real threat to the government…”
You have clearly proved that ignorance, idleness, and vice, are the proper ingredients for qualifying a legislator.
“Taking a bribe, letting yourself be bought off, accepting flattery in exchange for some sort of loyalty, is sabotage. Refusing to confront an issue because if you keep quiet you’ll get a promotion or be made an elder or keep your job corrupts you down deep.”
“They were trying to take down a clan, the most ancient and efficient social organization known to man. Didn’t the Americans realize that for every leader they arrested there were dozens of brothers, cousins, sons, and nephews to take his place?”
“Even if the Habr Gidr were somehow crippled or destroyed, wouldn’t that just elevate the next most powerful clan? Or did the Americans expect Somalia to suddenly sprout full-fledged Jeffersonian democracy?”
“The idea used to be that terrible countries were terrible because good, decent, innocent people were being oppressed by evil, thuggish leaders. Somalia changed that. Here you have a country where just about everybody is caught up in hatred and fighting.”
“A cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the corruption of taste.”
“He sounded like a man who had slept well and didn’t owe too much money.”
“I have my pipe line into headquarters, or I wouldn’t be here. I get them the way they happen, not the way you read them in the papers.”
“Being a copper I like to see the law win. I’d like to see the flashy well-dressed mugs like Eddie Mars spoiling their manicures in the rock quarry at Folsom, alongside of the poor little slum-bred hard guys that got knocked over on their first caper and never had a break since. That’s what I’d like. You and me both lived too long to think I’m likely to see it happen. Not in this town, not in any town half this size, in any part of this wide, green and beautiful U.S.A. We just don’t run our country that way.”
“He’s got friends in town, or he wouldn’t be what he is.”
“It seemed like a nice neighborhood to have bad habits in.”
“He doesn’t know what the truth means, so he does not even know how he lies. ”
“But whilst man takes delight in this honest and lawful pursuit of his wellbeing, it is to be apprehended that he may in the end lose the use of his sublimest faculties; and that whilst he is busied in improving all around him, he may at length degrade himself.”
“Slavery, as we shall afterwards show, dishonors labor; it introduces idleness into society, and with idleness, ignorance and pride, luxury and distress. It enervates the powers of the mind, and benumbs the activity of man.”
“The private citizen, who employs the most immoral practices to acquire power, can only act in a manner indirectly prejudicial to the public prosperity. But if the representative of the executive descends into the combat, the cares of government dwindle into second-rate importance, and the success of his election is his first concern. All laws and all the negotiations he undertakes are to him nothing more than electioneering schemes; places become the reward of services rendered, not to the nation, but to its chief; and the influence of the government, if not injurious to the country, is at least no longer beneficial to the community for which it was created.”
“Men are not corrupted by the exercise of power or debased by the habit of obedience, but by the exercise of a power which they believe to be illegal and by obedience to a rule which they consider to be usurped and oppressive.”
“The government itself, which is only the mode which the people have chosen to execute their will, is equally liable to be abused and perverted before the people can act through it.”
A small amount of power corrupts a small man absolutely. A little knowledge is dangerous to a little man. To a great man only great knowledge is dangerous. -- Leonard J. V. Compagno
Unlimited power corrupts the possessor; and this I know, that, where law ends, there tyranny begins. -- William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
Unlimited power corrupts the possessor. -- William Pitt
Power corrupts, and PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. -- Vinton Cerf
I no longer give Power Point presentations, because I've come to believe that power corrupts, and Power Point corrupts absolutely. -- Vinton Cerf
Power corrupts, and obsolete power corrupts obsoletely. -- Ted Nelson
To assume all the powers is not good for anybody. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All those experiments have a bad ending. -- Rafael Correa
When power corrupts, poetry cleanses -- John F. Kennedy
If knowledge is power and power corrupt, does knowledge corrupt? -- James Moore
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? -- Harry Shearer
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God?? -- George Deacon
It is not that power corrupts but that power is a magnet to the corruptible. -- Frank Herbert
Power corrupts, and there is nothing more corrupting than power exercised in secret. -- Daniel Schorr
“It is easy to fight power, when you have none, when you feel like the victim. The real battle begins when you start to have a taste of power. It takes an impossible character to stand by their principles till their last breath, rejecting the pressure of oppression, as well as the convenience of power.” ― Abhijit Naskar
“The ecclesiastical governors of the Christians were taught to unite the wisdom of the serpent with the innocence of the dove; but as the former was refined, so the latter was insensibly corrupted, by the habits of government. In the church as well as in the world, the persons who were placed in any public station rendered themselves considerable by their eloquence and firmness, by their knowledge of mankind, and by their dexterity in business; and while they concealed from others, and perhaps from themselves, the secret motives of their conduct, they too frequently relapsed into all the turbulent passions of active life, which were tinctured with an additional degree of bitterness and obstinacy from the infusion of spiritual zeal.” ― Edward Gibbon
“He suddenly understood that power and pleasure were keenly entwined. One could succumb to such power. It corrupts the foolish and tests the resolute.” ― Linda Berdoll
“The masses, on admitting their own incapacity to govern themselves, have elected me as their head By doing so, they have clearly proclaimed their own inferiority and my superiority. In this great crowd of men, among whom I hardly find any who are my equals, I alone am capable of administering public affairs. The people need me; they cannot get along without my services, while I am sufficient unto myself. They must therefore obey me for their own good, and I, by deigning to command them, create their happiness and well-being." There is enough here to turn anyone's head and corrupt the heart and make one swell with pride, isn't there? That is how power and the habit of commanding become a source of aberration, both intellectual and moral, even for the most intelligent and most virtuous of men.” ― Mikhail Bakunin
