WHEN told that George Washington would most likely retire to his Virginia farm if he succeeded in leading his fellow Americans to independence, King George III is supposed to have replied, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
The art of gaining power is something we know a lot about; there are countless manuals on the subject. But the art of refusing power—resisting the temptation to exercise it—is much less understood. To forsake an opportunity to wield power: The very idea is as George III suggested, novel, strange, sublime.
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