William Hazlitt Quotes

Man is not by nature a tyrant, but becomes a tyrant by power conferred on him.

Many of the greatest tyrants on the records of history have begun their reigns in the fairest manner. But the truth is, this unnatural power corrupts both the heart and the understanding.

An autocratic system of coercion, in my opinion, soon degenerates. For force always attracts men of low morality, and I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels. For this reason I have always been passionately opposed to systems such as we see in Italy and Russia to-day.

Inhumanity is the keynote of stupidity in power.

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

The shortest way to change a radical into a conservative, a liberal into a tyrant, a man into a beast, is to give him power over his fellows.

The most insupportable of tyrants exclaim against the exercise of arbitrary power.

That's what tyrants do, I guess. They make you covet their attention; they make you confuse attention for mercy.

Men are still men. The despot's wickedness Comes of ill teaching, and of power's excess,-- Comes of the purple he from childhood wears, Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.

It is odd to consider the connection between despotism and barbarity, and how the making one person more than man makes the rest less.

Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race

Degeneracy follows every autocratic system of violence, for violence inevitably attracts moral inferiors. Time has proven that illustrious tyrants are succeeded by scoundrels.

Tyranny brings ignorance and brutality with it. It degrades men from their just rank into the class of brutes; it damps their spirits; it suppresses art; it extinguishes every spark of noble ardor and generosity in the breasts of those who are enslaved by it; it makes naturally strong and great minds feeble and little, and triumphs over the ruins of virtue and humanity.

The tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.

You can't trust anybody with power.

Clever tyrants are never punished.

Any excuse will serve a tyrant.

There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.

The great men of power who seek to change the nations they belong to usually are pretty terrible people.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

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.

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

And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that.

The possession of arbitrary power has always, the world over, tended irresistibly to destroy humane sensibility, magnanimity, and truth.