Full Idea
Human nature is such that given power over others a man will invariably oppress them. …Take the most radical revolutionist and place him on the all-Russian throne …and within a year he will become worse than the Emperor himself.
Gist of Idea
Given power, people are natural oppressors
Source
Mikhail Bakunin (Science and the Urgent Revolutionary Task [1870], p.128)
A Reaction
Humans can live well in anarchy, so humans must be intrinsically good, but not so good that they can resist the temptations of power. Bakunin must hope that no such temptations are available among anarchists.
Book Reference
'The Anarchists', ed/tr. Horowitz,Irving L. [Dell 1964], p.128