“A psychopath is defined as having no concern for the feelings of others & a complete disregard for any sense of social obligation. They seem egocentric and lacking insight and any sense of responsibility or consequence. Their emotions are thought to be superficial and shallow, if they exist at all. They are considered callous, manipulative and incapable of forming lasting relationships, let alone of any kind of love. It is thought that any emotions which the true psychopath exhibits are the fruits of watching and mimicking other people’s emotions. They show poor impulse control and a low tolerance for frustration and aggression. They have no empathy, remorse, anxiety or guilt in relation to their behavior. In short, they truly are devoid of conscience.
Psychopaths also have a markedly distorted sense of the potential consequences of their actions, not only for others, but also for themselves. They do not, for example, deeply recognize the risk of being caught, disbelieved or injured as a result of their behaviour.”
– Robert D. Hare

“Psychopaths, like anyone else, are born with different basic likes, dislikes and desires, which is why some of them are doctors and presidents and others are petty thieves or rapists…
What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron, or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer, is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.”
– Martha Stout

“In every competition in life, the cheaters are going to have an advantage. The people who act immorally, who have no regard for truth, are gong to have an advantage over those who play by the rules. The result is that those who achieve positions of power will be the most ruthless, the most sociopathic, the ones with no conscience.”
– Stefan Verstappen

“The truth is the only thing worth working towards. What separates us from the psychopath is our conscience, and our conscience must become the voice of truth. True conscience raises us above the example of animal behaviour set by the pathocrats.”
– Henry See in his book “The Trick of the Psychopath’s Trade”

“Psychopaths show a stunning lack of concern for the devastating effects their actions have on others. Often they are completely forthright about the matter, calmly stating that they have no sense of guilt, are not sorry for the pain and destruction they have caused, and that there is no reason for them to be concerned.”
– Robert D. Hare

“Character-disordered individuals, unencumbered by qualms of conscience, pursue their personal goals with indifference to and often at the expense of the rights and needs of others.”
– George Simon, Jr.

“Psychopaths differ from normal people in that they lack the ability to relate emotionally to others. As a consequence, they have a terrifying ability to treat others not as human beings but as things to be exploited, tortured or killed, as they see fit.”
– Ian Hughes

“Predators use charm, manipulation, intimidation, and violence to control others and to satisfy their own selfish needs. Lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they cold-bloodedly take what they want and do as they please, violating social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or regret.
– Robert D. Hare

“The psychopath enjoys making others suffer. Just as normal humans enjoy seeing other people happy, or doing things that make other people smile, the psychopath enjoys the exact opposite.”
– Andrew M. Lobaczewski in his book Political Ponerology: a science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes

“Psychopaths are experts at using people. They can ask anything of anyone without embarrassment…
Psychopaths lie for the sake of lying. They can convey the deepest heartfelt message without meaning a word of it.”
– Laura Knight-Jadczyk

“Empathy cannot defeat the psychopath. You cannot change them, you cannot reform them, you cannot find the goodness inside them, you cannot show them the way to god, and you cannot teach them about love. All these approaches are doomed to failure since psychopaths can never understand nor can they care about these concepts. While they may lead you to believe that you are getting through to them, in reality, your empathy infuriates them and far from admiring your compassion, they despise you even more. While you try to ‘understand’ the psychopath, they are secretly calculating how best to cause you the most suffering.”
– Stefan H. Verstappen

“Psychopaths are social predators and like all predators they are looking for feeding grounds. Wherever you get power, prestige and money you will find them.”
– Robert Hare

“Interpersonal traits of psychopaths include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others. The affective traits include a lack of remorse and/or guilt, shallow affect, a lack of empathy, and failure to accept responsibility…
If violent offenders are psychopathic, they are able to assault, rape, and murder without concern for legal, moral, or social consequences. This allows them to do what they want, whenever they want. Ironically, these same traits exist in men and women who are drawn to high-profile and powerful positions in society including political officeholders.”
– Jim Kouri

“If you’re very bright, know how to dress well; you have, say, the gift of the gab; you’re raised in an affluent family background; then you don’t go in the bank and rob it, you get in the bank and become a director.”
– Robert Hare

“Psychopaths are smart, personable, and engaging, but have no consciences. They are not guided by a sense of right or wrong. They seem to be unaffected by the feelings of others, including feelings of distress caused by their actions. Straying from a decent way of treating people, or violating ethical codes causes no anxiety…
Psychopaths are not technically insane. They don’t have a psychosis, like schizophrenia. They are experts in appearing normal…
In a country in which much of human culture has been rendered into machines for the manufacture of money, psychopaths are the ideal leaders. They are very focused. They are outcome oriented. They are frequently charming, and usually very bright and able. They can lay off thousands of people, or deny people health care, or have them waterboarded, and it does not disturb their sleep.”
– David Schwartz

“Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and warfare.”
– Stuart Hertzog

“Achieving power for the sake of having power is the nature of the psychopath.”
– Robert Hare

“The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power.
We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal.
We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.”
– George Orwell in his book 1984

“Lying, deceiving, and manipulation are natural talents for psychopaths.”
– Robert D. Hare