… I don’t agree with Guinness very often. He is one of those you read because, agree with him or not, he will make you think and on occasion he records an observation worth remembering.
“This danger points to the second source of temptation, the pressure on presidents to act as psychologically exceptional. Each of us in our life’s work knows the pressure to prove ourselves, the challenge of expressing our significance as a person. But in an anonymous society people not only express themselves in their work but have to earn it through their success. This puts the heaviest burden on the highest ambition–it is impossible to run for president , Henry Kissinger is quoted as saying, ‘unless you are a rich, unemployed egomaniac.’ and in the case of the presidency, it tempts holders of the office to live with both eyes on history. History is the world’s court of judgement that can be appealed to even over the heads of the electorate, the legislature , and the Supreme Court.” - pp. 331 from his The American Hour: A Time of Reckoning and the Once and Future Role of Faith