Michael Hirst Quotes

Power is always a corrupting influence.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

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.

What I fear most is power with impunity. I fear abuse of power, and the power to abuse.

Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

Power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will be ever liable to abuse.

Experience constantly proves that every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

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.

Abuse of power comes as no surprise

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

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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

I believe the root of all evil is abuse of power.

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

Power corrupts; but absolute power is really neat.

Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches

Politicians as a class are dangerous, that people who are seeking power over us are not, by definition, our friends.

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

Power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it.

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.'

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…