Quotes / Drunk with Power

Anime and Manga

"Maxwell...you have become enraptured by your own authority. Intoxicated by your power. We are meant to be mere instruments of a higher power. I am but a blade wielded from on high, a guillotine blade in the service of God. But this, Maxwell...what you do tonight is not in the service of God. IT IS IN THE SERVICE OF POWER! YOU, MAXWELL! YOU TURNED YOUR BACK ON GOD!"

— Alexander Anderson, Hellsing, in response to Maxwell's order to kill everyone in London.

"ALL THAT I EVER WANTED IS MINE! I CAN DO ANYTHING NOW!"

— Megatron, Transformers: Energon, "The Power of Unicron"

Audio Play

"Just a taste of Armageddon, Romana. It’s what happens when acquisitive minds are left unencumbered by conscience."

— Big Finish Doctor Who, "War Against the Laan"

Fan Works

"Perhaps I should instead reign, as is my right, as no mere Princess. What sayest thee to that? Should I crown myself as Equestria’s unchallenged, uncompromised, undimmed Queen? ...what you are suggesting is the path that lead Celestia to becoming Corona. And it is not merely one step on that path, but rather a headlong gallop down its length."

— Luna, At the Grand Galloping Gala

"It's beautiful! IT'S ALL MINE! ALL THIS STUFF IS MINE! THAT'S MINE, THIS IS MINE, IT'S ALL MINE! I HAVE COMPLETE POWER! IT'S ALL MINE!"

— Hobbes, Calvin & Hobbes: The Series, "Tonsil Terror"

"It’s always the rich ones. No matter if they show a mask to the world or not, you can bet your butt no one gets that much power without stomping on someone else. Maybe at first, they don’t like it, maybe at first, they think it’s the only way to survive. Either way, at some point, all that power corrupts. It doesn’t matter who you are."

—Mario, Grubby Gamble in the Glitz Pit, a Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door fanfic

Karin: Uh... Naruto? Do you think she's going mad with power?
Naruto: Well I believe it's the rush of having a new technique. It should wear off soon.
Hinata: And if she... doesn't?
Sakura: [reducing a boulder to rubble] YES! YES! I'M SAKURA THE UNSTOPPABLE! SAKURA THE INVINCIBLE! TREMBLE EVERYBODY, AND DESPAIR! YOUR DOOM HAS COME TO THIS WORLD! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Naruto: [scared] Dad says the Land of the Crescent Moon is a nice place to live.

— Son of the Sannin

Film — Animated

Aide: Sir, I'm afraid you've gone mad with power.
Russ Cargill: Of course I have. Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring. Nobody listens to you.

The Simpsons Movie discusses this trope

"I'll tell you who eats shit! Gods do, bro! I'm a fuckin' god!"

— Douche, Sausage Party

Film — Live-Action

"All who gain power are afraid to lose it."

— Palpatine, Revenge of the Sith

"A gift can often be a curse. Give someone wings, and they may fly too close to the sun. Give them the power of prophecy, and they may live in fear of the future. Give them the greatest gift of all, powers beyond imagination, and they may think they are meant to rule the world."

—Professor X, X-Men: Apocalypse

Literature

"One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim."

— Jessica Atreides, Children of Dune

"Rich isn't so difficult. Famous isn't so difficult. Rich and famous together aren't so difficult. Rich, famous, and doing good—now, that's very difficult."

—Jan Schlichtmann, A Civil Action

"There exists a limit to the force even the most powerful may apply without destroying themselves. Judging this limit is the true artistry of government. Misuse of power is the fatal sin. The law cannot be a tool of vengeance, never a hostage, nor a fortification against the martyrs it has created. You cannot threaten any individual and escape the consequences."

— Muad'Dib on Law, from the Stilgar Commentary, Dune Messiah

Laurence Connaught was an honest man, and an idealist, I think. But what would happen to any man when he became God? Suppose you were told twenty-three words that would let you reach into any bank vault, peer inside any closed room, walk through any wall? Suppose pistols could not kill you? Suppose you could stand under a falling atomic bomb and get yourself a thousand miles away between two breaths?
They say: power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And there can be no more absolute power than the twenty-three words that can free a man of any jail or give him anything he wants. Larry was my friend. But I killed him in cold blood, knowing what I did. Because he could not be trusted with the secret that could make him king of the world...
But I can.

—Pythias, by Frederik Pohl

Live-Action TV

With great power comes the absolute certainty that you'll turn into a right cunt.

— Billy Butcher, The Boys (2019)

"In all my travelling throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and rotten to the core. Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen? They're still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power! That's what it takes to be really corrupt!"

— The Sixth Doctor to the Time Lords, Doctor Who, "The Ultimate Foe"

"What are you all staring at? Do you think I've gone mad, mad with power? Well you're RIGHT. Perkins, from now on you work under your your desk. (hits desk) I said under your desk, man... Don't bother me, worm. I would have you fired if I had a little *more* power. I've gone mad with my *moderate* amount of power.""

— Kevin, The Kids in the Hall

"No government is going to reform the system that put it in power!"

— Sir Humphrey Appleby, Yes, Minister

Video Games

Black Canary: Only way out of here is through me.
Enchantress: Killing you will break June's heart.
Black Canary: You're too in love with your own power.

— Injustice 2

"Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHA! This moment marks Crossbell's consecration as the continent's promised land! The might of the Empire and Republic is no more! But from this hallowed ground, a new order shall ascend! And the world over will bear witness as the Crois family's righteous ideals become reality! HAHAHAHAHA!"

— Dieter Crois, The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure

"Beware... Those who do not know the danger of wielding power will, before long, be ruled by it."

— Lanayru, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Rose: Power, it always corrupts.
Gnarl: Ha, that's half the fun!

— Overlord II

"Do you have any idea how good this feels? I did this! Tiny little Wheatley did this! [...] And don't think I'm not onto you too, lady. You know what you are? Selfish! I've done nothing but sacrifice to get us here, and what have you sacrificed? Nothin'. Zero. All you've done is boss me around! Well now who's the boss? Who's the boss? It's me."

—Wheatley, Portal 2

"Aumaan chose me. By fusing Anubis, Aumaan can become real. Look! The perfect fusion of Metatron. The destruction to end all!"

— Nohman, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner

Web Animation

"This power to destroy wrongthink businesses. It's intoxicating. It feels like... never-ending mimosas at brunch. Every business must abide by Ron's rules or my Twitter army will #DESTROY thee!"

— Ron, Common Sense Soapbox, How to DESTROY with 140 Characters

Webcomics

Ivy: Being an RA is so fucking awesome. These girls listen to me. They'll do whatever I tell them to!
Benjy: Maybe Cheryl, but the ones who have their shit together don't—
Ivy: I'M DRUNK WITH POWER.

— Bobwhite

Western Animation

Mickey: But Captain Goofy, how are you gonna be in charge if there's nobody to be in charge of?
Goofy: Do not question the actions of a superior officer, yeoman!
Mickey: We're not yeomen, Goofy! We're Mickey and Donald! You know, your friends?!
Goofy: (reading from his book) "Chapter 3: Who needs friends when you've got POWER?!" (cue Dramatic Thunder)

—Mickey MouseWorks, "Sandwich Makers"

Amy: Knuckles! You’ve gone mad with power!

Knuckles: Oh, really? Well, would someone mad with power approve a law giving himself ultimate authority over everything?!

Sticks: That’s the dictionary definition of mad with power!

—Sonic Boom, "Mayor Knuckles"

Real Life

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

But it also rocks absolutely.

— Larry Kersten, sociologist and author

Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity; but if you wish to know what a man really is give him power. This is the supreme test.

— Robert G. Ingersoll (Part of this quote is incorrectly attributed to Abraham Lincoln)

The nature of power is such that even those who have not sought it, but have had it forced upon them, tend to acquire a taste for more.

— Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Power is a very unusual weapon. It’s like a sword whose hilt, as well as the blade, is razor sharp so that when you grasp it, it’s not only cutting the people you’re using it on, it’s cutting into you by changing you.

— Robert Caro, historian

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.

— John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

Suetonius' case history (and it is precisely that) of Domitian is particularly fascinating. An intelligent man of some harm, trained to govern, Domitian upon succeeding the Principate at first contented himself with tearing the wings off flies, an infantile pastime which gradually palled until, inevitably, for flies he substituted men... In terror for their lives, haunted by dreams and omens, giddy with domination, it is no wonder that actual insanity was often the Cesarean refuge from a reality so intoxicating.

— Gore Vidal, The Twelve Caesars

Saying 'power corrupts' is stating something so obvious we feel stupid even typing it. It's like saying elevators elevate.

— Cracked, "5 Things You Think Will Make You Happy (But Won't)"

SBTB's spurious Highschool United Nations set-up works because there's an unspoken agreement lingering beneath the surface of every interaction. Sure, the jock, the geek, the brain; all the archetypes are kicking it together, but each knows their place within the social pecking order. The Beauty and the Screech exposes the lie, when one of their number is accidentally catapulted through the social glass ceiling. If there's a lesson to be taken from this, it's that you give those nerds an inch, and they'll take a fuckin' mile.

— Stuart Millard on Saved by the Bell ("The Beauty and the Screech"), So Excited, So Scared

David: Bruce comments on how the sonar phone server is “beautiful,” while Lucius bitches about it being “unethical.”
Chris: I think “bitching” is a little harsh, Uzi.
David: How can one man have so much power? The clock’s tickin’, I just count the hours. Stop trippin, I’m trippin’ off the power.
Chris: Kanye was actually the first choice to play Batman.

— Chris Sims and David Uzumeri on The Dark Knight

Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could.

— Abigail Adams

There is another factor too: the more pain you inflict on people, the worse of a person you become. Power is dangerous even when not used, but deploying it brutally and pointlessly rots the soul.

— Jeffrey A. Tucker

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