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For what can power give more than food and drink,
To live at ease, and not be bound to think?

— John Dryden

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More quotes by John Dryden

Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.

Aureng-Zebe (1676)

Whate’er he did, was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please.

Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

Love conquers all, and we must yield to Love.

The Works of Virgil (1697)

What passion cannot Music raise and quell?

A Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1687)

Whatever is, is in its causes just.

Œdipus (1679)

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