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Quotes about power

213 quotes from 148 people

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No one can depute authority. It comes too much from personal accidents, and too little from reason or law to be handed over to others.
Anthony Trollope1815–1882The Duke’s Children (1879), Ch. 66
- Leadership
Watch out for the fellow who talks about putting things in order! Putting things in order always means getting other people under your control.
Denis Diderot1713–1784“Supplement to Bougainville’s Voyage” (1796)
There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you.
Norman Mailer1923–2007Armies of the Night (1968)
My measures will not be crippled by any bureaucracy. Here I don’t have to worry about Justice; my mission is only to destroy and to exterminate, nothing more.
Hermann Göring1893–1946Speech in Frankfurt (3 March 1933), as quoted in Gestapo: Instrument of Tyranny (1956) by Edward Crankshaw, p. 48
- Justice
A country is considered the more civilised the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak and a powerful one too powerful.
Primo Levi1919–1987If This Is a Man (1947)
- Laws
The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.
Robert E. Lee1807–1870“Definition of a Gentleman”, a memorandum found in his papers after his death, as quoted in Lee the American (1912) by Gamaliel Bradford, p. 233
- Character
You only have power over people so long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything he’s no longer in your power — he’s free again.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn1918–2008The First Circle (1968), Ch. 17, Bobynin
- Freedom
Power rests on the kind of knowledge that one holds. What is the sense of knowing things that are useless? They will not prepare us for our unavoidable encounter with the unknown.
CCCarlos Castaneda1925–1998The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe (1998), “Quotations from The Teachings of Don Juan” (Chapter 4)
- Knowledge
Society cannot exist without an apparatus of violent coercion. But neither can it exist if the office holders are irresponsible tyrants free to inflict harm upon those they dislike.
Ludwig von Mises1881–1973Planned Chaos (1947), reprinted as the Epilogue to Socialism (1951 ed.)
- Government
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government.
Andrew Jackson1767–1845Veto Message regarding the Bank of the United States (10 July 1832)
- Government
The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.
Robert F. Kennedy1925–1968“I Remember, I Believe,” The Pursuit of Justice (1964)
- Politics
To put it very simply, anyone can become an American, but only a Chinese can be Chinese⁠—and that places an additional and significant barrier in the way of any essentially national global hegemony.
Zbigniew Brzezinski1928–2017The Grand Chessboard (1997), Conclusion, p. 210
- America
The arts of power and its minions are the same in all countries and in all ages. It marks its victim; denounces it; and excites the public odium and the public hatred, to conceal its own abuses and encroachments.
Henry Clay1777–1852Speech, Senate (14 March 1834)
The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.
Albert Camus1913–1960“Homage to an Exile”, speech honoring Eduardo Santos (7 December 1955); in Resistance, Rebellion, and Death (1960)
- Politics
Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power.
George Orwell1903–1950Notes on Nationalism (1945)
- Patriotism