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Sure, it’s abuse of power. What’s the point in power if you can’t abuse it?

— Elizabeth Bear

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Power

More quotes by Elizabeth Bear

We claim the dignity of age, she thought, but the truth is, age leaves us without any dignity at all.

Bone and Jewel Creatures (2010)

He wouldn’t be much of a diplomat if he couldn’t lie with a straight face.

Carnival (2006)

While it is true that notoriety offers certain benefits, it is not by any means confirmed that those benefits compensate for the disadvantages.

Bone and Jewel Creatures (2010)

The world is full of the markers of abandoned empires, from Hadrian’s Wall to the Great Wall of China, from the remnants of the one in Arizona to the remnants of the one in Berlin.

The Hand is Quicker (2014)

Strike two for Utopia. The problem with the damned things always comes when you try to introduce actual people into your philosophical constructs.

Carnival (2006)

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