James Madison 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.

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

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

You can't trust anybody with power.

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

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

As for the men in power, they are so anxious to establish the myth of infallibility that they do their utmost to ignore truth.

I have always been fascinated by the corruption of power.

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

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

Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.

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

My fundamental axiom of government is never to trust the lamb to the wolf.

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…

The sudden acquisition of power by those who have never had it before can be intoxicating and we run the risk of petty power games ...