Noah Webster Quotes

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

Power over others is weakness disguised as strength.

Powerlessness corrupts: absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely

All authority is quite degrading. It degrades those who exercise it, and it degrades those over whom it is exercised.

There is no more contemptible poison than power over one's fellow men.

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

You can be a control freak only when you have weak people around you.

Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

And this is the Anarchistic definition of the State: the embodiment of the principle of invasion in an individual, or a band of individuals, assuming to act as representatives or masters of the entire people within a given area.

The average European does not seem to feel free until he succeeds in enslaving and oppressing others.

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

The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out.

Power, whether vested in many or a few, is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, "Give, give!

The natural course of power is to make the many slaves to the few.

Power corrupts; but absolute power is really neat.

Each new power won by man is a power over man as well.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

The tyranny of some is possible only through the cowardice of others.

I think it's a dangerous thing for anyone to have power over other people.

For some people, being free means being free to keep their feet on someone else's chest.

Experience proves that those are oftenest abused who can be abused with the greatest impunity. Men are whipped oftenest who are whipped easiest.

Power always has a direction. It is always downward, towards the weak but power is often confused with what is right

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.