Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Acton wrote it in an 1887 letter to Bishop Creighton, arguing that historians should judge popes and kings by the same standard as anyone else — the line was about refusing exemptions for the powerful, not about ambition generally.
In practice
- A volunteer treasurer with sole signing authority and no audit begins with small reimbursements and ends, four years later, unable to say when it stopped being borrowing.
- A moderator given permanent authority over a small forum gradually converts rules meant to keep order into rules that protect her position.