You must be careful what you pretend to be, because in the end, you are what you pretend to be.
....................Kurt Vonnegut, in "Mother Night"
All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted. . . . . . . . . . . . .. — Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune