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Colin felt a shiver pass down his spine. What man, granted total power, could refrain from using it? And would not his first target inevitably be his fellow men?

— John Brunner Entry to Elsewhen (1972)

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Power

More quotes by John Brunner

If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing.

The Shockwave Rider (1975)

You have many years to live—do things you will be proud to remember when you're old.

Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Men change their gods, and when they have changed them often enough they cease to fear their power.

The Atlantic Abomination (1960)

If you want to know what's shortly due for the guillotine look for the most obvious of all symptoms: extremism.

Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

—Among the other things lunatics make: their own version of truth.

Quicksand (1967)

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