Skip to content

The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks.

— Thomas Bailey Aldrich Ponkapog Papers (1903)

Another quote →

Topics

Power

More quotes by Thomas Bailey Aldrich

To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent—that is to triumph over old age.

Ponkapog Papers (1903)

What is lovely never dies,
But passes into other loveliness,
Star-dust, or sea-foam, or wingëd air.

Unguarded Gates and Other Poems (1895)

A man is known by the company his mind keeps.

Ponkapog Papers (1903)

There's a special Providence that watches over idiots, drunken men, and boys.

The Story of a Bad Boy (1870)

The man who suspects his own tediousness is yet to be born.

Ponkapog Papers (1903)

All Thomas Bailey Aldrich quotes →

You may also like

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