Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect any who seek it.
Politicians as a class are dangerous, that people who are seeking power over us are not, by definition, our friends.
There are two fairly standard approaches to political power used by those who seek it. Some seek power with the assumption that the citizenry are the source of legitimacy and are to be treated with respect. Others concentrate on identifying whatever insecurities there are within the citizenry and on exploiting them.'
Anyone who seeks power wants absolute power.
To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.
Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.
The overriding problem with our country, and our world in general, is that we are, in large part, managed by incompetents. Most of these are men who have spent their lives seeking power rather than themselves.
Those who seek power at any price detect a societal weakness, a fear that they can ride into office.
In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don't mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably the most dangerous people seek the power. While in the parlors of indignation the right-thinking citizen brings his heart to a boil. (p. 51)
The poorest of men are the most useful to those seeking power.
We really can't tell the difference between people who might seek power for some greater good and people who seek power just to aggrandize themselves. For example, all revolutionaries say that they want to uplift the downtrodden.
The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
The people who have the biggest passion for restricting other people's behavior are the very people we should worry about most. Unfortunately, they keep running for office.
There are men who desire power simply for the sake of the happiness it will bring; these belong chiefly to political parties.
