Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder

'Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation.'

'Charles Caleb Colton, The Lacon. From The Great Quotations, compiled by George Seldes, 1960.