Anthony Trollope Quotes

In order to obtain and hold power a man must love it. Thus the effort to get it is not likely to be coupled with goodness, but with the opposite qualities of pride, craft and cruelty.

All men would be tyrants if they could.

Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.

A strength to harm is perilous in the hand of an ambitious head.

The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.

Nature has left this tincture in the blood, That all men would be tyrants if they could.

The Arrogance of Power

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

… the tools of despotism and corruption

Power, like vanity, is insatiable. Nothing short of omnipotence could satisfy it completely. And as it is especially the vice of energetic men, the causal efficacy of love of power is out of all proportion to its frequency. It is, indeed, by far the strongest motive in the lives of important men. Love of power is greatly increased by the experience of power, and this applies to petty power as well as to that of potentates.

Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.

In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

Power is always a corrupting influence.

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.

The world is full of little dictators trying to run your life.

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

The heights of popularity and patriotism are still the beaten road to power and tyranny.

Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.

Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best.

The ruling idea of the politician - stated rather bluntly - is that those who are opposed to him exist for the purpose of being made to serve his ends, if he can get power enough in his hands to force these ends upon them.

Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.

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