With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Stan Lee Quote

With great power comes great responsibility; Stan Lee observing that power in the Marvel universe carries the same responsibilities as in the realm of any political elite

In the Marvel universe Stan Lee first penned the line "with great power comes great responsibility" in 1962 for the inaugural edition of the Spiderman comic.

The quote was an editorial note in describing Spidermans terrible grief at the thought he let a criminal go and the same guy went on to kill his uncle in a robbery gone too far.

This absolute realisation of the correlation of Spidermans power with his responsibility to use it wisely was burned into Spidermans mind and he vowed to fight crime from thenceforth, so setting up the successful Spiderman comic series.

From Marvel To The Corridors Of Power


Stan Lee was not the first to use this quote but he is in good company with statesmen like Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt also using close variations of this phrase.

The realm of politics is where the real power lays in most countries but the lines seem to be connected to many different versions of the responsibility this power entails depending on the flavour of the regime in power.

There are great demands on people in power and a never ending list of requests handed to all who walk the corridors of power. The expectation level of these requests can be feverish and people will go to extremes to ratchet up the pressure on the powerful so they may decide on granting establishment support.

A request could be in the form of an idea, a policy, a rule of law, a licence or anything that a public authority approval would give traction to increase the requesters chances of success.

The impact for the good of the people will be high on the agenda when considering the merits of the request and a strict list of criteria should be met to weed out the self interests from the things that can do genuine good for the people.

Politics Power And Corruption


Politics, power and corruption have gone hand in hand since before the birth of democracy, the English historian John Dalberg-Acton coined the phrase "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely" and it is an apt description judging by the history of people in power.

History has shown that moral standards decline in correlation with the number of years in power, it is for this good reason that some governments around the world limit their leaders to no more than two terms in office.

A good person can be elected to power but the longer they are in power the greater the temptations will be to do things for the wrong reasons, it could be for personal gain or it could be that the feeling of power becomes too irresistible and showing your power for the sake of it usually leads to bad decisions.

From the moment someone takes power there will be a rush for people with vested interests to get close to them so they can 'share' their ideas and try to influence the thinking of the new leader.

The Levers Of Power


Long before someone has been elected to power there will be people rallying behind who they think has an opportunity to gain power. They will back them and support them and if their 'guy' has been successfully elected they expect it will be pay back time.

Lucrative government contracts are at stake so it pays to be close to those holding the levers of power. It is all too easy to award contracts to friends and in open tenders to advise to your friends how to adjust their tender to give it the best opportunity of success.

From Stan Lee to the powerful who operate the levers of power they all recognise its meaning that with great power comes great responsibility.


Michael Joseph Farrelly Article By:



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Random Responsibility Quote

"I will tolerate no opposition. We recognize only subordination – authority downwards and responsibility upwards" - Adolf Hitler