“You must be very scrupulous not to gather power in to the center just because you can do it. Power corrupts, that’s the basic law of politics. Maybe the only law.”

Source: Blue Mars (1996), Chapter 3, “A New Constitution” (p. 156)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update July 1, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You must be very scrupulous not to gather power in to the center just because you can do it. Power corrupts, that’s the…" by Kim Stanley Robinson?

Kim Stanley Robinson98

American science fiction writer 1952

Related quotes

“Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything… and not doing it only because you can.”

Joan D. Vinge The Snow Queen

Source: The Snow Queen

“The law cannot forgive, for the law has not been wronged, only broken; only persons can be wronged. The law can pardon, but it can only pardon what it has the power to punish.”

W. H. Auden book The Dyer's Hand

"The Prince's Dog", p. 201
The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays (1962)

“The fundamental... the basic law of life is the law of cause and effect... the law of Karma as they call it in the east. It was put out by Jesus very simply in His time in a way that would be understood by the farmers... as you sow, so shall you reap... it's the basic law of life.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The State of the World 2010, public lecture in New York City, USA, (July 2010)

“In fact, maybe Metcalfe's Law is the formula for Doug Engelbart's scaling of human knowledge, just as Watt'ssteam engine scaled human power.”

Andy Kessler (1958) American writer

Part V, The Next Barrier, Packet Racket, p. 190.
Running Money (2004) First Edition

“Thus, if there exists a law which sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression or robbery, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned. For how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect which it inspires? Still further, morality and political economy must be taught from the point of view of this law; from the supposition that it must be a just law merely because it is a law. Another effect of this tragic perversion of the law is that it gives an exaggerated importance to political passions and conflicts, and to politics in general.”

Frédéric Bastiat book The Law

The Law (1850)

“Almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

“If [an FBI agent] abuses his power, we should punish him, and there are laws on the books for that. But just because a power can be abused doesn’t mean you take away the power. Congress can declare war unjustly. What do we do if they do so? Do we take away their power to declare war? No. We somehow reprimand Congress. We vote them out of office. If a senior official or a field agent leaks some personal information on someone, they should go to jail, and they will.”

Mark Riebling (1963) American writer

Interview with Mark Riebling (2002)

“Lodges are occult and secret centers of power! Journalists/politicians should be required by law to publicly declare whether they are members!”

Filip Dewinter (1962) Flemish politician

Filip Dewinter: Following the series in De Standaard, here's an anthology of tweets: http://vrijmetselarijvoordummies.blogspot.com/2012/02/twitter.html

“There are laws far more powerful for us Catholics, far more powerful than those espoused in Party political agendas and pushed by the vested interests of powerful pressure groups: Natural law, the structures of the human personality built into mankind by God the Creator into the mind and heart of human beings, and the Divine law, the law of Almighty God expressed in the Commandments and in the New Ways of Jesus Christ, illustrated so clearly in the Gospels; Divine and Natural Law which we must always obey and which can never be trumped by the Laws of man, however democratically expressed by Parliament – whichever Parliament – when they clash with the Laws of God. The Law of God is a much higher Law, the ultimate Law. To rebel against the design of the Creator is a grave matter indeed!”

Stephen Robson (1951) Bishop of Dunkeld

Bishop Stephen Robson’s homily https://www.dunkelddiocese.co.uk/chrism-mass-st-andrews-cathedral-2019/ (17 April 2019)

“Have you noticed that the people who actually make the laws, the people in power, never make laws for themselves?”

William Powell (author) book The Anarchist Cookbook

"Postscript", p. 153.
The Anarchist Cookbook (1971)

“You must be very scrupulous not to gather power in to the center just because you can do it. Power corrupts, that’s the basic law of politics. Maybe the only law.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Kim Stanley Robinson98

Related quotes

Related topics