“Modern man believed that an increase of power meant an increase of 'progress' itself, that it advanced man in his security, usefulness, welfare and vigor; it was an assimilation of new values into the stream of culture. Power, however, is truly a thing more powerful than any of those things. It can create evil as well as good; it can destroy as well as construct. What happens to power depends upon man’s tempered exercise of it, upon the reasoned ends to which he places it. Close examination proves that recent years have been marked by a monstrous growth in man’s power over being, over things and over men, but the grave responsibility, the clear consciousness, the strong character needed for exercising this power well have not kept pace with its growth at all. Contemporary man has not been trained to use power well nor has he – even in its loosest sense – an awareness of the problem itself. He seems alert to the crisis of power today only in its limited external dangers, such as clearly arose during the recent War [reference to WWII] and were then publicly discussed.”
-Romano Guardini, The End of the Modern World, p. 82
"Where there is no revelation the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law." Proverbs 29:18
