The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (441 page)

Read The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs Online

Authors: John Andrew Simpson,

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs
11.32Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
POWER corrupts
The proverb is now commonly used in allusion to quot. 1887.
1876
Prime Minister
IV. viii.
We know that power does corrupt, and that we cannot trust kings to have loving hearts.
1887
Letter in Life & Letters of Mandel Creighton
(1904) I. xiii.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority.
1957
Testament of Experience
II
. ix.
The processes by which ‘power corrupts’ are perhaps inevitable.
1979
Better Angels
IV
. xii.
He doesn't
know
that power corrupts; there's nothing dark in him.
1997
Washington Times
2 June A15
And we know from the case of the conservatives that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
power
PRACTICE makes perfect
1553
Art of Rhetoric
3
Eloquence was vsed, and through practise made parfect.
1599
Two Angry Women of Abington
l. 913
Forsooth as vse makes perfectnes, so seldome seene is soone forgotten.
1761
Diary
(1961) I. 192
Practice makes perfect.
1863
Hard Cash
III. iv.
He lighted seven fires, skillfully on the whole, for practice makes perfect.
1979
Shikasta
185
It is like playing the piano or riding a bicycle. Practice makes perfect.
1998
Washington Times
13 Jan. E2
Practice makes perfect. How many times have parents uttered those words to encourage their children …?
diligence

Other books

Rebel Without a Cause by Robert M. Lindner
Shelter by Jung Yun
Dragon Flight by Caitlin Ricci