QuoteProject
Power corrupts, and there is nothing more corrupting than power exercised in secret.
Daniel Schorr
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Power has a tendency to corrupt those who possess it, especially when it is wielded in secrecy.

This quote emphasizes the inherent dangers of power, suggesting that it can lead to moral decay and unethical behavior, particularly when actions are taken without transparency. The secrecy associated with power enhances its corrupting influence, as it allows individuals to act without accountability, which can ultimately lead to the erosion of ethical standards and trust.

Themes

PowerCorruptionSecrecyEthicsMorality

In practice

Example use cases

During a political debate, one might quote this to highlight the dangers of unchecked political power.

More from Daniel Schorr

I have no doubt that the nation has suffered more from undue secrecy than from undue disclosure. The government takes good care of itself.
Daniel SchorrRead

Similar quotes

Everyone has values; even criminal gangs have values. Values govern people's behavior but principles govern the consequences of those behaviors.
Stephen CoveyRead
Patriotism is a pernicious, psychopathic form of idiocy.
George Bernard ShawRead
I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber one has some day to cry aloud on the house-tops.
Oscar WildeRead
Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our antimaterialist, otherworldly, New Age, spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu, and seaweed slime.
Edward AbbeyRead
Our country, if it does justice to itself, will be the workshop of liberty to the civilized world.
James MadisonRead
Man is appealed to be guided in his acts, not merely by love, which is always personal, or at best tribal, but by his perception of his oneness with each human being. In the practice of mutual aid, which we can re-trace to the earliest beginnings of evolution, we thus find the positive and undoubted origin of our ethical conceptions; and we can affirm that in the ethical progress of man, mutual support- not mutual struggle- has had the leading part.
Peter KropotkinRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.