It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man’s real character than power and authority, exciting, as they do, every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

Power does not so much change people as reveal what was already there under restraint. When consequences fall away and nobody can afford to object, whatever a person has been holding in comes out, and both the small cruelties and the steadiness become visible. That is why how someone treats those who cannot answer back tells you the most.

If you have authority over anyone, even a little, look at what you do with the parts nobody audits. How you speak when tired, who you interrupt, whose time you treat as free. Those are the measurements that count.