A Quote by George Deacon

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, where does that leave God??

Quote Topics

Absolute Absolute Power Absolute Power Corrupts Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely Absolutely Corrupts Does God Leave Power Power Corrupts

Quote Author

George Deacon
British - Scientist
March 21, 1906 - November 16, 1984

You know, 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'? It's the same with powerlessness. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely. Einstein said everything had changed since the atom was split, except the way we think. We have to think anew.

Studs Terkel

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?

Harry Shearer

There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience, a readiness to attempt the impossible, a bias for simple solutionsto cut the knot rather than unravel it, the viewing of compromise as surrender. Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence, absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer

To assume all the powers is not good for anybody. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All those experiments have a bad ending.

Rafael Correa

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I found that out when I was Attorney General in Massachusetts.

Edward Brooke

It's very hard to operate on a general philosophy of power. They say that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, but I don't agree with that. I think you have to be corrupted to be corrupted by power.

Mark Pellegrino

We're taught Lord Acton's axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don't believe it's always true any more. Power doesn't always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.

Robert Caro

Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Eric Hoffer

Absolute power, as we have always known, corrupts absolutely; it corrupts because it does not do the trick for the individual. Reality always creeps in--the reality of our helplessness and our mortality; the reality that, despite our reach for the stars, a creaturely fate awaits us.

Irvin D. Yalom

The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.

Frank Herbert

It has been said that absolute power corrupts absolutely, but many it not be truer to say that to be absolutely powerful a man must first corrupt himself?

Terence Rattigan

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Lord Acton

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

John Dalberg-Acton

We have all been told that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I have long thought this is nonsense.

Bret Weinstein

I don't actually subscribe to the view that all power corrupts. But absolute power - when secured on the back of massive parliamentary majorities, which don't reflect the balance of political opinion in the country - can corrupt absolutely.