“Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.”

—  John W. Campbell

Editorial in Analog Science Fiction/Fact magazine (1970)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Immunity corrupts; absolute immunity corrupts absolutely." by John W. Campbell?
John W. Campbell photo
John W. Campbell 2
American science fiction writer and editor 1910–1971

Related quotes

Eric Hoffer photo

“The best education will not immunize a person against corruption by power.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Source: Before the Sabbath (1979), p. 40-41
Context: The best education will not immunize a person against corruption by power. The best education does not automatically make people compassionate. We know this more clearly than any preceding generation. Our time has seen the best-educated society, situated in the heart of the most civilized part of the world, give birth to the most murderously vengeful government in history.
Forty years ago the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead thought it self-evident that you would get a good government if you took power out of the hands of the acquisitive and gave it to the learned and the cultivated. At present, a child in kindergarten knows better than that.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter photo

“Powerlessness corrupts: absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely.”

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (1943) American economist

Slightly edited version of text in Men and Women of the Corporation, Basic Books, 1977

“Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Джон Эмерих Эдвард Дальберг-Актон (1834–1902)
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton photo

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton (1834–1902) British politician and historian

Letter http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1407&Itemid=283 to Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887), published in Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, Appendix, p. 504; also in Essays on Freedom and Power (1972)
Paraphrased variant: All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Context: I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against 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.

Poul Anderson photo

“Mortal combat corrupts, and war corrupts absolutely.”

Poul Anderson book There Will Be Time

Source: There Will Be Time (1972), Chapter 10 (p. 107)

Chuck Palahniuk photo

“Power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So just relax, Helen Boyle told me, and just enjoy the ride.
She said, "Even absolute corruption has its perks.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Lullaby

Source: Lullaby (2002), Chapter 9

Studs Terkel photo

“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 (1912–2008) American author, historian and broadcaster

The Guardian interview (2002)

Neil Gaiman photo

“Even the better protected files corrupt,
and the best protected corrupt absolutely.”

Neil Gaiman book Smoke and Mirrors

Cold Colors (p. 239)
Smoke and Mirrors (1998)

Eric Hoffer photo

“Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.”

Eric Hoffer (1898–1983) American philosopher

Section 13; often the final portion of this is quoted alone as: "Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power."
Reflections on the Human Condition (1973)
Context: The Savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.
There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience; a readiness to attempt the impossible; a bias for simple solutions — to cut the knot rather than unravel it; the viewing of compromise as surrender; the tendency to manipulate people and "experiment with blood."
Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.

Related topics