Quotes on Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely

Great men are almost always bad men.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.