Francis Bacon Quotes

Men are such power-seeking creatures, and they usually kill people to get to the throne.

Their authority over their slaves renders them vain and imperious.

Steve Bannon puts himself above everything.

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.

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.

The Arrogance of Power

[Douglas] MacArthur is the type of man who thinks that when he gets to heaven, God will step down from the great white throne and bow him into His vacated seat.

I almost think were I to win some small success now, I could become dictator.

Resolv'd to ruin or to rule the state..

The tyrant is a child of pride.

No state, no government exists. What does in fact exist is a man, or a few men, in power over many men.

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.

Many people around the President have sizeable egos before entering government, some with good reason. Their new positions will do little to moderate their egos.

Egotism is the source and summary of all faults and miseries.

It's such an egotistical thing to be able to just stand there and say, 'Action!' It's like being a little mini-god.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Now Herod was an active man, and soon found proper materials for his active spirit to work upon.

There's a certain amount of tyranny in all of us to some extent, and in some people it's much more developed than in others. It's a different balance which makes us all different.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

Half of the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm. But the harm does not interest them.

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

Oh that I were seated as high as my ambition, I'd place my naked foot on the necks of monarchs.

Our public figures are often narcissists, utterly self-absorbed in their quest for power.

Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.