Frank Peretti Quotes

Absolute power should never be trusted to man. It has perverted the wisest heads, and corrupted the best hearts in the world. I should be afraid to commit my property, liberty and life to a body of angels for one whole year.

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power whether vested in many or few is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, 'Give, give.'

The People will have unfounded Power. And the People are extremely addicted to Corruption and Venality, as well as the Great. I am not without Apprehensions from this Quarter.

The essence of government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse

The reason nobody investigates the men who are trading off our freedoms for private enrichment is that they are the very ones who are doing the investigating.

As a young man, you're dazzled by the power of the White House and all that. But power tends to corrupt.

Power dements even more than it corrupts, lowering the guard of foresight and raising the haste of action.

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Some people are in positions of power, and when incentives go haywire, we are all human and it's easy to make mistakes. I am not saying everybody is Bernie Madoff.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

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.

The inherent corruption of man can often bring down the best system.

All institutions are prone to corruption and to the vices of their members.

Corporate bodies are more corrupt and profligate than individuals, because they have more power to do mischief, and are less amenable to disgrace or punishment. They feel neither shame, remorse, gratitude, nor goodwill.

The first sign of corruption in a society ... is that the ends justify the means.

[Lobbying] has reached such a position of power that it threatens the government itself. Its size, its power, its capacity for evil; its greed, trickery, deception and fraud condemn it to the death it deserves.

We should submit to careful examination and review a system which places such vast powers for evil in the hands of irresponsible individuals and which makes the possession of land not a trust but a means of extortion and exaction.

A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.

We have a cancer within, close to the Presidency, that is growing. It is growing daily.

I don't think that anybody is worse than a public official who sells his office and corrupts others.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.