But a particular cruelty pervades all her art along with a wafting compassion that falls some degree short of reassuring.

NEWYORKER: Faces

In "The Prince, " a treatise on the art of politics, the 16th century Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli insisted that compassion got in the way of eminence.

WSJ: Weekend Essay by Jonah Lehrer: How Power Affects Us