The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.
Interpretation
This quote distinguishes between two personality types: the megalomaniac, who craves power and fear, and the narcissist, who seeks charm and love.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell explores the fundamental differences between megalomania and narcissism. While a narcissist is primarily focused on being admired and loved by others, a megalomaniac pursues dominance and is more concerned with instilling fear and asserting authority. Russell suggests that this desire for power over love can lead individuals to commit extreme acts, and he points out that many influential historical figures exhibited such megalomaniacal traits, which often blur the lines between genius and madness.
In practice
In a discussion about leadership styles, this quote can highlight the dangers of power-driven individuals.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
Gerald Westerby, he told himself. You were present at your birth. You were present at your several marriages and at some of your divorces, and you will certainly be present at your funeral. High time, in our considered view, that you were present at certain other crucial moments in your history.
All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.
I often worry that my idea of personhood is nostalgic, irrational, inaccurate.
The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.
If we esteem them too highly, good works can become the greatest idolatry.
Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being is the first, the most basic, expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help, it will continue to be.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.