Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

It is weakness rather than wickedness which renders men unfit to be trusted with unlimited power.

That's not to say Eddie's never done anything malicious. But he never grabbed power for power's sake. His position was gained only because he has that energy, and that's naturally where he ended up.

Where there are large powers with little ambition, nature may be said to have fallen short of her purposes.

After having won a scepter, few are so generous as to disdain the pleasures of ruling.

Power tires only those who do not have it.

Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.

Every one, more or less, loves Power, yet those who most wish for it are seldom the fittest to be trusted with it.

The best people to have power are the ones who don't want it.

But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.

To deny we need and want power is to deny that we hope to be effective.

Men such as they are, very naturally seek money or power; and power because it is as good as money,--the “spoils,” so called, “of office.” And why not? For they aspire to the highest, and this, in their sleep-walking, they dream is highest. Wake them, and they shall quit the false good, and leap to the true, and leave governments to clerks and desks.

The lust for power is not rooted in strength but in weakness.

Men love power.

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.

Men are very much to be pitied in that they are to be governed by a king who is but a man like them; for it would require Gods to reform men. But kings are not less to be pitied, since being but men, that are weak and imperfect, they are to govern this innumerable multitude of corrupt and deceitful men.

Seeking the office of the Presidency implies that there is something a little bit wrong with you.

Politics and the fate of mankind are shaped by men without ideals and without greatness. Men who have greatness within them don’t go far in politics.

when greed and fear are linked to power, you have a dangerous mix. We see that in political life. In part of the world, the mix of greed and fear means that those who get power become reluctant to give it back. One of the many things I like and admire in our democracies are the norms that make our leaders hand over power when voters tell them to

Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power.|

For me, power was never an attraction.

It is not a mistake to want power.

Power in itself has never attracted me, nor has position been my goal.

Who so taketh in hand to frame any state or government ought to presuppose that all men are evil, and at occasions will show themselves so to be.

Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.