I first felt the addictive power of 'Game of Thrones' when I was prime minister, living in a world where power was also pursued relentlessly, albeit far less colourfully. Certainly, the characters of my world were nowhere near as good looking or exotically dressed.
Power is a disease one has no desire to be cured of.
Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit.
Power's a strange thing, lad. It's a drug people like me crave it.
Anyone who said power was not addictive had never really experienced it.
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief.
Some are addicted to cigarettes, some, God forbid, to drugs, and some become addicted to money. They say that the worst addiction is to power. I have never felt that. I have never been addicted to anything
Human beings are addicted to power in an interesting way, and this is what makes a lot of people feel powerful: belittling people that are commonly belittled. I think if we understood that this was going on, that this was the mechanism at work within us, we wouldn't be that way.
The attraction of power is heady, addictive. And as we know from real life, it can be a disease. A horrific disease.
