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Quotes about power

213 quotes from 148 people

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To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
John Milton1608–1674Paradise Lost (1667), i.262-263In context
- Motivation & Goals
The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.
James Madison1751–1836Speech in the Virginia Constitutional Convention, 2 December 1829, The Writings of James Madison: 1819-1836 (1910), ed. Galliard Hunt, p. 361
- Government
All social cooperation on a larger scale than the most intimate social group requires a measure of coercion.
Reinhold Niebuhr1892–1971Moral Man and Immoral Society (1932), p.3
- Government
The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s, 1848
Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.
Simone Weil1909–1943The Iliad or The Poem of Force (1940-1941), p. 192
- Justice
- Love
All men would be tyrants if they could.
Daniel Defoe1660–1731Jure divino: a satyre, Introduction, l. 2 (1706).
Feminism, coveting social power, is blind to women’s cosmic sexual power.
Camille Pagliaborn 1947Rape and Modern Sex War, p. 52
- Women
People with real power never fear of losing it. People with control think of little else.
Joss Whedonborn 1964“Mom, He’s Doing It Again..”, at Whedonesque.com (10 November 2007)
- Fear
All powers have two sides, the power to create and the power to destroy. We must recognize them both, but invest our gifts on the side of creation.
Robin Wall Kimmererborn 1953Braiding Sweetgrass (2013), p. 212
Whatever crushes individuality is despotism, by whatever name it may be called, and whether it professes to be enforcing the will of God or the injunctions of men.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Liberty (1859), Ch. III: Of Individuality, As One of the Elements of Well-BeingIn context
- Liberty
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Henry IV, Part 2 (1597-8), Act III, scene i.
- Leadership
Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.
Edmund Burke1729–1797Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Volume iii, p. 334
- Politics
True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.
Milan Kundera1929–2023The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Pt. 7, ch. 2
- Morality
Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 10: Recrudescence of Puritanism
Our protection against all kinds of fanatics and extremists, none of whom can be trusted with unlimited power over others, lies not in their forbearance but in the limitations of our Constitution.
Robert H. Jackson1892–1954American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 U.S. 382, 439 (1950)
- Government