Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who posses it; and this I know, my lords: that where law ends, tyranny begins.

To assume all the powers is not good for anybody. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All those experiments have a bad ending.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Power tends to corrupt if you're there too long.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You can't trust anybody with power.

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

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

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

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…

... all of our human experience shows that no one with absolute power can be trusted to give it up even in part.

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

More power than any good man should have, and more power than any other kind of man ought to have.

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

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

Overly concentrated power, whether in public, private or even in civic hands is an invitation to abuse.