Robert A. Caro on the means and ends of power.
“During all these years I did come to understand stuff about power that I wanted people to know. You read in every textbook that cliché: Power corrupts. In my opinion, I’ve learned that power does not always corrupt. Power can cleanse. When you’re climbing to get power, you have to use whatever methods are necessary, and you have to conceal your aims. Because if people knew your aims, it might make them not want to give you power. Prime example: the southern senators who raised Lyndon Johnson up in the Senate. They did that because he had made them believe that he felt the same way they did about black people and segregation. But then when you get power, you can do what you want. So power reveals. Do I want people to know that? Yes.”
Caro has a new book out about how he's worked over the years and so there are a barrage of interviews with him. He is a fascinating person and I love reading the interviews and will be reading the book as well. The New Yorker has a longer piece by him that is just as good, I highly recommend it.