William Henry Harrison Quotes

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

Power corrupts; but absolute power is really neat.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

You can't trust anybody with power.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

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.

Powerlessness corrupts: absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely

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

Those who exercise power always arrange matters so as to give their tyranny the appearance of justice.

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

If monarchy is corrupting - and it is - wait till you see what overt empire does to us.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

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

Brutal men with unlimited power are the same all over the world.

The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim, denounces it, and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments.

Powerlessness also corrupts.

Force always attracts men of low morality ... tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.

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

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

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

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

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.

In a free government, the few, finding their schemes and views of interest borne down by the many, to gain the power they cannot constitutionally obtain, always endeavor to get it by cunning and corruption, conscious at the same time that usurpation, when once begun, the safety of the usurper consists only in grasping the whole.

The arbitrary rule of a just and enlightened prince is always bad. His virtues are the most dangerous and the surest form of seduction: they lull a people imperceptibly into the habit of loving, respecting, and serving his successor, whoever that successor may be, no matter how wicked or stupid.