Send a Quote Enter a brief message. SendOk2 “Thus arbitrary power will have divided men of superior intelligence into two groups: the former will be seditious, the latter corrupt...” ~ Benjamin Constant [Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque] (1767-1830) Swiss-born thinker, writer and French politician.Source: The Spirit of Conquest and Usurpation (1814), reprinted in Political Writings, translated and edited by Bancamaria Fontana (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 126. Later editions than the 1814 one had "despotism" instead of "abitrary power."