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About this quote

What does it mean?
Power is neutral and can be used for both good and evil equally.
In plain terms
Power used for good also enables evil, just like milk feeds both heroes and murderers.
What can you take from it?
Recognize the dual nature of power.

Where it applies

  • leadership
  • decision making

Putting it to work

  • audit power use
  • consider unintended consequences

Questions to consider

  • Can power be purely good?
  • How do we mitigate the evil potential of power?

Another view

Some forms of power are inherently benevolent or malevolent.

More from George Bernard Shaw

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  2. Undershaft: You have made for yourself something that you call a morality or a religion or what not. It doesnt fit the facts. Well, scrap it. Scrap it and get …

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  3. ...society, with all its prisons and bayonets and whips and ostracisms and starvations, is powerless in the face of the Anarchist who is prepared to sacrifice …

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