Quotes
I had no doubt that there was madness here. How could it be otherwise in a cosmos that was ordered solely by will? It did not mean that the insane would automatically rise to the apex of the social order; their efforts would be diffused by the randomness of the impulses that drove them. But those whose extraordinary powers of will propelled them to the heights of power and rank would always be vulnerable to going further than they should. And there would be none but their equally mad rivals to restrain them.
p. 106
“He began to dream the dreams that always seduce a tyrant: powers beyond powers, worlds at his feet, whole realms bowing to his whims.”
“And the dreams occluded his faculties,” I said. “It was ever thus, we may be thankful, else tyrants would never fall.”
p. 165
Conquering a kingdom is always the easy part. It is keeping it that is difficult.
p. 192
Do not separate authority from responsibility.
p. 147
It is always tempting to believe that a bad system is the fault of one bad man.
Without a standing army, a king is just a windbag in fancy clothes.
p. 263
They measure rank as Mussolini did, by the amount of carpet between door and desk.
p. 133
In the universe of power, all transactions proceed in more directions than one.
In intelligent life, human or Martian, maybe there has always been a genuine division between those who honor the individuality of others and those who are driven to control and pervert it.
p. 64
We live in a world where the powerful can do what they want and the rest of us just have to accept it
p. 183
In any basic struggle for power, the intellectual man went under.
p. 249
"The law is on their side because it's their law." (p111)
