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To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it; the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.

— Charles Caleb Colton Lacon (1820)

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More quotes by Charles Caleb Colton

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it; anything but live for it.

Lacon (1820)

If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; If you would know, and not be known, live in a city.

Lacon (1820)

Applause is the spur of noble minds, the end and aim of weak ones.

Lacon (1820)

That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time.

Lacon (1820)

We often pretend to fear what we really despise, and more often to despise what we really fear.

Lacon (1820)

All Charles Caleb Colton quotes →

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Caleb Colton (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.