Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Quote of the Week 21

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."


Triggered by the episode "Keine Angst vor Macht und Mächtigen" (April 16, 2024) of the German "Wegen guter Führung" podcast. 

See also: Macht // Power.


Quote in context (Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887):

"... I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. 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. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. That is the point at which the negation of Catholicism and the negation of Liberalism meet and keep high festival, and the end learns to justify the means. ..."

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