Source: The Jewels of Aptor (1962), Chapter X (p. 133)
Context: A lesson which history should have taught us thousands of years ago was finally driven home. No man can wield absolute power over other men and still retain his own mind. For no matter how good his intentions are when he takes up the power, his alternate reason is that freedom, the freedom of other people and ultimately his own, terrifies him. Only a man afraid of freedom would want this power, who could conceive of wielding it. And that fear of freedom will turn him into a slave of this power.
“All wisdom's armoury this man could wield”
The Sage Enamoured (1892).
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George Meredith 45
British novelist and poet of the Victorian era 1828–1909Related quotes
“No man in Senate history has wielded more influence with less oratory.”
Phillips, Cabell. "Cannon vs. Hayden: A Clash of Elderly Power Personalities in Congress", New York Times, June 25, 1962, pp. 17.
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“[A proverb is] one man's wit, and all men's wisdom.”
Remark to James Mackintosh on October 6, 1830, reported in his posthumous memoir, Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh, Vol. 2 (1836), p. 472 http://books.google.com/books?id=wHM4AAAAYAAJ&q=%22one+man's+wit+and+all+men's+wisdom%22&pg=PA472#v=onepage
Variant: [A proverb is] the wisdom of many and the wit of one.
“No man has all the wisdom in the world; everyone has some.”
Country Town Sayings (1911), p62.
“He who enlists a man's mind wields a power even greater than the sword or the scepter.”
Source: The Worldly Philosophers (1953), Chapter I, Introduction, p. 3
“All this worldly wisdom was once the unamiable heresy of some wise man.”
“Sweet songs of youth, the wise, the meeting of all wisdom
To believe in the good in man.”
Lyrics of "Loved by the Sun", on the soundtrack of the film Legend (1986).
“Not all the wisdom and skill of man can produce life in the smallest object in nature.”
Steps to Christ, p. 49