Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men... There is not worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

--Lord Acton

Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.

--John Lehman

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

-- George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1949

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Technology and the Future

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

-- Philip K. Dick

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

-- Saul Alinsky

Rules for Radicals, 1971

Fear is the foundation of most governments.

-- John Adams