“Power is habit-forming. We grew addicted to it. Few things survive the centuries’ slow decay: senses grow dull; passions grow weak; and ideals die. Only the taste for power lives on as an excuse for survival.”
Source: Star Bridge (1955), Chapter 20, “Prime Mover” (p. 275)
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Jack Williamson 5
American science fiction writer 1908–2006Related quotes

“In picture we never die, never decay or grow older”
Essay on the Theory of Painting (1725)

“Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive.”
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Darwinism:
That survivors survive.
Source: The Book of The Damned (1919), Ch. 3, part 1 at resologist.net

“I finally did not understand if we are living to survive or we are living to die!”
Quoted in Humor & Caricature (February 1995), p. 3

“Ideals survive through change. They die through inertia in the face of challenge.”
European Parliament debates http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20050623+ITEM-004+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN&query=INTERV&detail=4-010
Speech to the European Parliament outlining the priorities of the British Presidency, 23 June 2005.
2000s
Source: 1960s, Economics As A Moral Science, 1969, p. 12