Augusto Pinochet Quotes

Yahya Khan wasn't interested in the government of the country, he was interested in power for its own sake and nothing else.

The man whom events had elevated to the position of dictator tirelessly must have been aspiring to power himself, energetically pushing aside and crushing ruthlessly all who stood in his way

Anyone who gets to the top in politics is a control freak.

Political ambition, like other kinds of ambition, is a basic human appetite …. Like other human appetites, ambition is not evenly distributed among the population, but enough people with substantial political ambition are naturally drawn to political careers to make the problem of controlling it a major aspect of constitutional government.

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

De Gaulle has all the characteristics to be a dictator.

To be frank, politics is about wanting power, getting it, exercising it, and keeping it.

I'd rather rule the world now than be prime minister.

Mobutu does not think he is God.

I don't really understand what a dictator is, but on the other hand I sometimes, in a nice way, envy myself," he said. "I am the last and only dictator in Europe and indeed there are none anywhere else in the world.

Stern men with empires in their brains.

To be a great autocrat you must be a great barbarian.

To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.

If you don't know the difference between dictatorship and leadership then you got to go back to a fifth grade civics class.

A passion for politics stems usually from an insatiable need, either for power, or for friendship and adulation, or a combination of both.

The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

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.

Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.

Ambition characterizes and distinguishes national officeholders from other kinds of human beings.

My plan is to govern as long as I can.

I’m the constitution around here now.

You are afraid of the one, I, of the few.... You are apprehensive of monarchy, I, of aristocracy.

Because I am the supreme authority.