A Quote by Louisa May Alcott

Power is a dangerous thing. Be careful that you don't abuse it or let it make a tyrant of you.

Louisa May Alcott

Quote Topics

Abuse Be Careful Careful Dangerous Dangerous Thing Make Power Thing Tyrant

Quote Author

Louisa May Alcott
American - Novelist
November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888

There is not land beneath the sun where there is an open Bible and a preached gospel, where a tyrant long can hold his place... Let the Bible be opened to be read by all men, and no tyrant can long rule in peace... The religion of Jesus makes men think, and to make men think is always dangerous to a despot's power.

Charles Spurgeon

Someone who really wants to discover themselves has to be particularly careful about the use and abuse of power. But even your average human being just passing through another life has to be careful.

Frederick Lenz

The most personal thing I've put in [Touch of Evil] is my hatred of the abuse of police power. It's better to see a murderer go free than for a policeman to abuse his power.

Orson Welles

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

Edmund Burke

Man is not by nature a tyrant, but becomes a tyrant by power conferred on him.

Lucretia Mott

Be careful with words, they're dangerous. Be wary of them. They begat either demons or angels. It's up to you to give life to one or the other. Be careful, I tell you, nothing is as dangerous as giving free rein to words

Elie Wiesel

Every abuse ought to be reformed, unless the reform is more dangerous than the abuse itself.

Voltaire

When you have a young man, I mean, questioning the power in place for love of his country, not to say 'stop' but to say 'be careful about the abuse of technology,' I think it deserves to be promoted.

Jean-Michel Jarre

That's what Judith Herman is saying, and she's absolutely right. Power then breeds an intensification of all because the power can never be absolute power - to some extent it's stymied - but the isolation while in power becomes even more dangerous. Think of it as a vicious circle. The power intensifies these tendencies and the tendencies become more dangerous because of the power.

Donald Trump

Obama is a tyrant the same way FDR was a tyrant. He has a view of presidential power that states: the government is in control of the country, and the president is in charge of the government. He's taken an imperial view of the presidency.

David Mamet

We must not let ourselves be swept off our feet in horror at the danger of nuclear power. Nuclear power is not infinitely dangerous. It's just dangerous, much as coal mines, petrol repositories, fossil-fuel burning and wind turbines are dangerous.

David J. C. MacKay

Substances like LSD, which give away a secret about the nature of the social game - the human game and what underlies it - are potentially dangerous, of course, like any good thing is. Electricity is dangerous, fire is dangerous, cars are dangerous, planes are dangerous, but not so dangerous as driving on the freeway. The only way to handle danger is to face it. If you start getting frightened of it, then you make it worse. Because you project onto it all kinds of bogeys and threats which don't exist in it at all.

Alan Watts

All stories have a curious and even dangerous power. They are manifestations of truth -- yours and mine. And truth is all at once the most wonderful yet terrifying thing in the world, which makes it nearly impossible to handle. It is such a great responsibility that it's best not to tell a story at all unless you know you can do it right. You must be very careful, or without knowing it you can change the world.

Vera Nazarian

In my case, I got hit a lot by bullies when I was a child, and so I naturally bristle against anybody who abuses power. And that seems to make me rather persistent when it comes to exposing the abuse of power.