My father once told me that respect for truth comes close to being the basis for all morality. 'Something cannot emerge from nothing,' he said. This is profound thinking if you understand how unstable 'the truth' can be.
Frank HerbertRead
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it ... We should grant power over our affairs only to those who are reluctant to hold it and then only under conditions that increase that reluctance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote warns that those who desire power are often corrupted by it, and we should be cautious in granting authority.
Frank Herbert's quote suggests that individuals who actively seek power may have ulterior motives that can lead to corruption. It advocates for a careful approach in assigning power, proposing that authority should only be entrusted to those who are hesitant to take on such responsibilities, and only in circumstances that enhance their reluctance. This reflects a deep understanding of human nature and the complexities of leadership.
Themes
PowerCorruptionLeadershipAuthorityCaution
In practice
Example use cases
During a leadership seminar, one could use this quote to discuss the ethics of power in governance.
More from Frank Herbert
All quotes →If you need something to worship, then worship life - all life, every last crawling bit of it! We're all in this beauty together!
Frank HerbertRead
Religion must remain an outlet for people who say to themselves, "I am not the kind of person I want to be." It must never sink into an assemblage of the self-satisfied.
Frank HerbertRead
To know a thing well, know it's limits; Only when pushed beyond it's tolerance will it's true nature be seen. -The Amtal Rule
Frank HerbertRead
Technology tends toward avoidance of risks by investors. Uncertainty is ruled out if possible. People generally prefer the predictable. Few recognize how destructive this can be, how it imposes severe limits on variability and thus makes whole populations fatally vulnerable to the shocking ways our universe can throw the dice.
Frank HerbertRead
It is impossible to live in the past, difficult to live in the present and a waste to live in the future.
Frank HerbertRead
Similar quotes
The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts. But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.
Michael BloombergRead
People are often led to causes and often become committed to great ideas through persons who personify those ideas. They have to find the embodiment of the idea in flesh and blood in order to commit themselves to it.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Read
You can't inspire people if you are going to be uninspiring.
Robert ReichRead
The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.
Abdul KalamRead
If someone had told me in 1963 that one day I would be in Congress, I would have said, 'You're crazy. You don't know what you're talking about.'
John LewisRead
And so it is that I carry with me from this State to that high and lonely office to which I now succeed more than fond memories and fast friendships. The enduring qualities of Massachusetts - the common threads woven by the Pilgrim and the Puritan, the fisherman and the farmer, the Yankee and the immigrant - will not be and could not be forgotten in the Nations Executive Mansion. They are an indelible part of my life, my convictions, my view of the past, my hopes for the future.
John F. KennedyRead