P. J. O'Rourke Quotes

There is no more contemptible poison than power over one's fellow men.

If monarchy is corrupting - and it is - wait till you see what overt empire does to us.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

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

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

Power not only corrupts he who wields the power but those who submit to it. Those who grovel at the feet of power betray their fellows to hide themselves behind the cloak of submission. It is an evil thing.

Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

You can be a control freak only when you have weak people around you.

There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.

Powerlessness corrupts: absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely

In order to obtain and hold power a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft and cruelty.

All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

Power corrupts; but absolute power is really neat.

The people always have some champion who they set over them and nurse into greatness …. This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector.

Power is always dangerous. It attracts the worst and corrupts the best..

People who are in a position of power like to throw their weight around, and that becomes abuse.

I think it's a dangerous thing for anyone to have power over other people.

It is the old practice of despots to use a part of the people to keep the rest in order.