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The possession of power inevitably spoils the free use of reason.
Immanuel Kant
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Power can corrupt one's ability to think and reason freely.

This quote by Immanuel Kant suggests that having power can lead to a detrimental impact on one's rational thinking. When individuals are in positions of authority, they may become blinded by their own interests and lose their capacity for objective reasoning, ultimately leading to a misuse of their power and a degradation of moral and ethical judgment.

Themes

PowerReasonCorruptionAuthorityEthics

In practice

Example use cases

This quote could be used in a discussion about ethics in leadership.

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. . . as to moral feeling, this supposed special sense, the appeal to it is indeed superficial when those who cannot think believe that feeling will help them out, even in what concerns general laws: and besides, feelings which naturally differ infinitely in degree cannot furnish a uniform standard of good and evil, nor has any one a right to form judgments for others by his own feelings. . . .
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Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them: the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.
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