Patrick Leahy Quotes

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.

... a consolidation of unchecked and despotic power in the House of Representatives ...

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

You can't become a dictator through checks and balances.

In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and of enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men; and whenever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty.

One Hundred and Seventy Three Despots would surely be as oppressive as one.

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

A dictatorship would be a lot easier ... so long as I'm the dictator.

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

Mobutu does not think he is God.

Audacity is the currency for authoritarians.

It can't happen here is always wrong: a dictatorship can happen anywhere.

Despotism increases in severity with the number of despots; the responsibility is more divided, and the claims are more numerous.

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

A collective tyrant, spread over the length and breadth of the land, is no more acceptable than a single tyrant ensconced on his throne.

Every one of the world's dictatorships can and does claim to be acting in the name of the people.

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.

Every tyrant who has lived has believed in freedom for himself.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

I have no desire to go in for tyranny or to play the part of King Charles. I hate tyranny in any field of human activity.

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

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

The love of domination and an uncontrolled lust of arbitrary power have prevailed among all nations and perhaps in proportion to the degrees of civilization.