David Brin Quotes

There is an interesting interplay between power corrupting and corruption empowering. The causality does not go one way.

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.

So easily do weak men put in high positions turn villains

Power corrupts; but absolute power is really neat.

It was not power that corrupted people, but fools who corrupted power.

Nothing corrupts a man so much as being an arm of the law and making men suffer.

You can't trust anybody with power.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I found that out when I was Attorney General in Massachusetts.

I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

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.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

Men in authority tend to abuse it – not all men, but many.

You know, "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely"? It's the same with powerlessness. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely.

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

The American people do not begrudge anyone his or her power until they start abusing it.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

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

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.

Power doesn't corrupt people, people corrupt power.

Occupants of public offices love power and are prone to abuse it.

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

Since the origin of the world there has never been a king—even if you were to select the very best—who did not in some measure abuse his authority…