Helmut Kohl Quotes

It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

I think we all have the capacity of evil in us.

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

A fondness for power is implanted in most men, and it is natural to abuse it when acquired. This maxim, drawn from the experience of all ages, makes it the height of folly to intrust any set of men with power which is not under every possible control; perpetual strides are made after more as long as there is any part withheld.

Goodness, armed with power, is corrupted; and pure love without power is destroyed.

Dark impulses certainly exist in me and, I think, in most people.

We may not all break the Ten Commandments, but we are certainly all capable of it. Within us lurks the breaker of all laws, ready to spring out at the first real opportunity.

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

There is a dark side in all of us. And for us 'bad' people, the bad side dominates. I think there is a great sadness in villains, and I have tried to put that across. We cannot stop ourselves doing what we are doing.

The story being told in 'Star Wars' is a classic one. Every few hundred years, the story is retold because we have a tendency to do the same things over and over again. Power corrupts, and when you're in charge, you start doing things that you think are right, but they're actually not.

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

Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power whether vested in many or few is ever grasping, and like the grave, cries, 'Give, give.'

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

It is not the misuse of power that is evil; the very existence of power is an evil.

We have to entrust power to someone, but nobody can be entrusted with power. That is our dilemma.

when greed and fear are linked to power, you have a dangerous mix. We see that in political life. In part of the world, the mix of greed and fear means that those who get power become reluctant to give it back. One of the many things I like and admire in our democracies are the norms that make our leaders hand over power when voters tell them to

As a young man, you're dazzled by the power of the White House and all that. But power tends to corrupt.

Power is what spoils people. Yes, it seems to me that the seeking after power is the great danger and the great corruptor of mankind.

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

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.

It's human nature to abuse power, no matter who you are.

Urges ... every man has urges. But the true measure of man is to admit them, to learn to control them. The Shield used to refer to themselves as the most dominant force in our universe. But that ain't the way I remember it. They fell victim to the faults of men. Their lust and greed and valor for glory, it led them right down in the pit, where they belong. Tonight, they'll burn for it. For I am no man. I am reborn. Our bond can never be broken, and our urges can never be satisfied.

Power in the hands of the reformer is no less potentially corrupting than in the hands of the oppressor.