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A theory of power has long been the Holy Grail for political science, but the Grail has not been found.

— Mancur Olson Power and Prosperity: Outgrowing Communist and Capitalist Dictatorships (2000)

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More quotes by Mancur Olson

No analysis of the limits of economic freedom or the uses of coercion by government, labor unions, or organizations of any kind can do justice to the complexity of the subject without taking account of the distinction between collective and noncollective goods.

The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (1965)

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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: Mancur Olson (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.