If virtue does not equal powers, powers will be misused.

John Howard Griffin
About This Quote

A quote that captures the idea that power is something that comes with virtue, not vice-versa. This is very true in most forms of government. The more power a government has, the more it abuses. Gandhi wrote, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” It would be interesting to see if this idea would be applied to humans as well. Gandhi was right when he said, “The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Source: Black Like Me

Some Similar Quotes
  1. The soul is healed by being with children. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
  2. It’s important that what thoughts you are feeding into your mind because your thoughts create your belief and experiences. You have positive thoughts and you have negative ones too. Nurture your mind with positive thoughts: kindness, empathy, compassion, peace, love, joy, humility, generosity, etc. The... - Roy T. Bennett
  3. As you grow up, always tell the truth, do no harm to others, and don't think you are the most important being on earth. Rich or poor, you then can look anyone in the eye and say, 'I'm probably no better than you, but I'm... - Harper Lee
  4. Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised. It is... - Andrew Murray
  5. Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion. - Robert Macfarlane
More Quotes By John Howard Griffin
  1. He was one of those young men who possess an impressive store of facts, but no truths.
  2. The author meets an African-American who observes that his fellows who begin with aspirations to a good education, solid career, and the raising of a family slowly lose that incentive. Even those who have a college education, he observes, need to take menial jobs and...
  3. The author explains that some find recourse from injustice in literature and art but that these tend to deepen sensitivity to injustice rather than dull it.
  4. Nothing can describe the withering horror of this. You feel lost, sick at heart before such unmasked hatred, not so much because it threatens you as because it shows humans in such an inhuman light. You see a kind of insanity, something so obscene the...
  5. How can you render the duties of justice to men when you're afraid they'll be so unaware of justice they may destroy you? ...especially since their attitude toward their own race is a destructive one.
Related Topics