Irvin D. Yalom Quotes

Brutal men with unlimited power are the same all over the world.

... all of our human experience shows that no one with absolute power can be trusted to give it up even in part.

If you took the most ardent revolutionary, vested him in absolute power, within a year he would be worse than the Tsar himself.

The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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.

The chief evil is unlimited government, and nobody is qualified to wield unlimited power.

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins.

… we cannot conceive of the authority of a despot who knows all his subjects on sight.

At times it is necessary for a country to have, for a time, some form or other of dictatorial power..

Absolute power is absolute power, no matter what it's called.

Nothing's as dangerous as power with impunity.

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.

Tyranny knows no restraint of appetite.

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

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

There is no King, who, with sufficient force, is not always ready to make himself absolute.

Me, rule? Me, place the State under my law, when my feeble reason no longer rules even myself!

Unlimited power is worse for the average person than unlimited alcohol; and the resulting intoxication is more damaging for others. Very few have not deteriorated when given absolute dominion. It is worse for the governor than for the governed.

An absolute monarchy is one in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleases the assassins.

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.

Enlightened despots are mythical creatures; real despots seem more interested in stealing money or installing their sons after them.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

Africa has more dictators per capita than any other continent.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.