Sections (TOC) :
• 1
66 Words; 428 Characters
• 2
87 Words; 509 Characters
• 3
47 Words; 283 Characters
• 4
54 Words; 307 Characters
• 5
167 Words; 912 Characters
• 6
29 Words; 175 Characters
• 7
25 Words; 134 Characters
• 8
68 Words; 389 Characters
• 9
29 Words; 175 Characters
• 10
66 Words; 390 Characters
• 11
40 Words; 233 Characters
• 12
103 Words; 643 Characters
• 13
19 Words; 133 Characters
Sections (Content) :
• 1
...the extraordinary temptations to which all men who hold power in their hands are exposed, the ambitions, rivalries, jealousies, the gigantic cupidities by which particularly those in the highest positions are assailed by day and night, and against which neither intelligence nor even virtue can prevail, especially the highly vulnerable virtue of the isolated man, it is a wonder that so many societies exist at all.
• 2
...that legislator has false ideas of utility who considers particular more than general conveniences, who had rather command the sentiments of mankind than excite them, and dares say to reason, `Be thou a slave'; who would sacrifice a thousand real advantages to the fear of an imaginary or trifling inconvenience; who would deprive men of the use of fire for fear of their being burnt, and of water for fear of their being drowned; and who knows of no means of preventing evil but by destroying it.
• 3
The sanctity of the State becomes identified with the sanctity of the ruling class, and the latter are permitted to remain in power under the impression that in obeying and serving them, we are obeying and serving society, the nation, the great collectivity of all of us....
• 4
An American psychologist has studied the motives of those who tried to kill presidents of the United States. This type of study is becoming a new national sport. He has come up with the conclusion that it is "a wish for immortality." No doubt -- but what lies behind the desire to become president?
• 5
It is reasonable to love virtue, to esteem good deeds, to be grateful for good from whatever source we may receive it, and, often, to give up some of our comfort in order to increase the honor and advantage of some man whom we love and who deserves it. Therefore, if the inhabitants of a country have found some great personage who has shown rare foresight in protecting them in an emergency, rare boldness in defending them, rare solicitude in governing them, and if, from that point on, they contract the habit of obeying him and depending on him to such an extent that they grant him certain prerogatives, I fear that such a procedure is not prudent, inasmuch as they remove him from a position in which he was doing good and advance him to a dignity in which he may do evil. Certainly while he continues to manifest good will one need fear no harm from a man who seems to be generally well disposed.
• 6
...from his eager desire to secure, or to extend his power, he finds it become, like the fortunes of his people, a creature of mere imagination and unsettled caprice.
• 7
If riches are by any people made the standard of good and of evil, let them beware of the powers they entrust to their prince
• 8
Are the governors such exceptionally gifted men as to enable them, with some show of reason, to represent the masses and act in the interests of all men better than all men would be able to act for themselves? Are they so infallible and incorruptible that one can confide to them, with any semblance of prudence, the fate of each and all, trusting to their knowledge and goodness?
• 9
...subjects having no law but the will of their master, and their master no restraint but his passions, all notions of good and all principles of equity again vanish.
• 10
...there is in this case no other corporate will to create an equilibrium by resisting the will of the prince, sooner or later the prince must inevitably suppress the Sovereign and break the social treaty. This is the unavoidable and inherent defect which, from the very birth of the body politic, tends ceaselessly to destroy it, as age and death end by destroying the human body.
• 11
And will you not learn by these brilliant examples that the egoist gets on best? I for my part take a lesson from them, and propose, instead of further unselfishly serving those great egoists, rather to be the egoist myself.
• 12
If only each King, Emperor, and President understood that his work of directing armies is not an honorable and important duty, as his flatterers persuade him it is, but a bad and shameful act of preparation for murder-and if each private individual understood that the payment of taxes wherewith to hire and equip soldiers, and, above all, army-service itself, are not matters of indifference, but are bad and shameful actions by which he not only permits but participates in murder-then this power of Emperors, Kings, and Presidents, which now arouses our indignation, and which causes them to be murdered, would disappear of itself.
• 13
...the larger political system [is] where decisions are made at a distance by a sometimes incomprehensible tangle of elites.
Chronology :
March 12, 2020 : Power -- Added.
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