Charles Kennedy Quotes

It's very hard to operate on a general philosophy of power. They say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I don't agree with that. I think you have to be corrupted to be corrupted by power.

A politician's goal is always to manipulate public debate. I think there are some politicians with higher goals. But all of them get corrupted by power.

All power corrupts but some must govern.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I found that out when I was Attorney General in Massachusetts.

You can't give the government the power to do good without also giving it the power to do bad - in fact, to do anything it wants.

In the United States, though power corrupts, the expectation of power paralyzes.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

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.

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.

I truly believe that all power corrupts. Such is probably the thinking behind every political film ever made in Hollywood.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

Look, we know we screwed up when we were in the majority. We fell in love with power. We spent way too much money - especially on earmarks. There was too much corruption when we ran this place. We were guilty. And that's why we lost.

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

If he be not impeachable whilst in office, he will spare no efforts or means whatever to get himself reelected.

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

The whole administrative, judicial, and legislative machinery obeys a single will, the caprice of General Porfirio Diaz, who during his long administration has shown that the principal motive that guides him is to maintain himself in power and at any cost.

If our system of government were changed, so as to give to the Governor the duty of overriding and nullifying a definite elective choice by removing an elected official for acts committed prior to his election, with full public knowledge thereof, such change would create in Albany a power so dangerous in the hands of an unscrupulous Governor that the will of the electorate could be wholly destroyed.

Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare they have become the tools of corrupt interests, which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes.

The consequences of turning a blind eye to government corruption go far beyond simply letting some corrupt politicians and bureaucrats walk free.

I don't think 'Citizen Kane' stands more than one watch. Power corrupts. Who didn't know that?

When extraordinary power and extraordinary pay are allotted to any individual in a government, he becomes the center, round which every kind of corruption generates and forms.

Give politicians power and it certainly will be abused eventually - if not by today's politicians, then by their successors.

With people in high office, the old - you go into the extreme, which is absolute power and absolute power corrupts.

Power corrupts, and there is nothing more corrupting than power exercised in secret.

When power is for sale, then government power should be severely limited. When power is abused, then the less power the better.