David Halberstam Quotes

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.

It's said that 'power corrupts', but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible.

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

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

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

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.

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

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

With power comes the abuse of power. And where there are bosses, there are crazy bosses. It's nothing new.

Religion is a very scary thing, because a pastor is in a position of power. And if you use that power badly, you ruin people's lives, and you ruin your own life.

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

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

The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority.

All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.

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

If you use power too loosely, you lose power.

Men are never very wise in the exercise of a new power.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms [of government] those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations perverted it into tyranny.

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

Power corrupts; but absolute power is really neat.

While our traditional authority has always been respected, sadly at times, it has also been abused.

Individuals and classes which have lost the force to maintain themselves in power make themselves more and more hated because of their outbursts of random violence. The strong man strikes only when it is absolutely necessary, and then nothing stops him. Trajan was strong, not violent: Caligula was violent, not strong.

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

The possession of power does not necessarily imply its unrighteous or oppressive use, although it generally awakes suspicion.