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 (1920–1986) American writer

Chapterhouse: Dune (1985)
    (Source)

Chapter epigraph attributed in-fiction to "Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)." See also Brin (1985).