Everyone likes power. I can't imagine a more wonderful exercise of it than to move the souls of men to pity or terror.
 W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence (1919). copy citation

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Author W. Somerset Maugham
Source The Moon and Sixpence
Topic pity power
Date 1919
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/222/222-h/222-h.htm

Context

“Critics, writers, stockbrokers, women." "Wouldn't it give you a rather pleasing sensation to think of people you didn't know and had never seen receiving emotions, subtle and passionate, from the work of your hands? Everyone likes power. I can't imagine a more wonderful exercise of it than to move the souls of men to pity or terror." "Melodrama." "Why do you mind if you paint well or badly?" "I don't. I only want to paint what I see." "I wonder if I could write on a desert island, with the certainty that no eyes but mine would ever see what I had written."” source