Entry in progress—B.P.
 
Wikipedia: Harry Shearer
Harry Julius Shearer (born December 23, 1943) is an American actor, comedian, writer, voice actor, musician, author, radio host, director and producer. He is known for his long-running roles on The Simpsons, his work on Saturday Night Live, the comedy band Spinal Tap and his radio program Le Show. Born in Los Angeles, California, Shearer began his career as a child actor, appearing in The Jack Benny Program, as well as the 1953 films Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and The Robe.
 
Wikiquote: John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, 1st Baron Acton (10 January 1834 – 19 June 1902) was an English historian, commonly known simply as Lord Acton.
(...)
I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption it is the other way against holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.
. Letter to Mandell Creighton (5 April 1887), published in Historical Essays and Studies, by John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (1907), edited by John Neville Figgis and Reginald Vere Laurence, Appendix, p. 504; also in Essays on Freedom and Power (1972)
. Paraphrased variant: All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
 
Google Books
Return of the Portable Curmudgeon
By Jon Winokur
New York, NY: Plume
1995, ©1992
Pg. 243:
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?
HARRY SHEARER
 
Google Groups: rec.sport.cricket
Over the hill…
Charles Levy
12/26/96
(...)
“If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?
- Henry Shearer
 
Google Books
Words from the Wise:
Over 6,000 of the Smartest Things Ever Said
By Rosemarie Jarski
New York, NY: Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
2013
Pg. ?:
If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?
Harry Shearer
 
Twitter
Jewish Comedians
‏@JewishComedians
Harry Shearer: If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? | #Quotes
2:53 PM - 29 Dec 2015