Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
Let no man imagine that he has no influence. Whoever he may be, and wherever he may be placed, the man who thinks becomes a light and a power.
Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man.
Ye may have a greater prince, but ye shall never have a more loving prince.
Power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it.
No man speaketh, or should speak, of his prince, that which he hath not weighed whether it will consist with that veneration which should be preserved inviolate to him.
Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon.
No matter where your lot may be cast, no power on earth can keep you from making a man of yourself, a superb character, a masterpiece.
A king without power is an absurdity.
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.