Quotes about power
213 quotes from 148 people
Abigail Adams1744–1818Letter to John Adams (31 March 1776), published in Familiar Letters of John Adams and his wife Abigail Adams (1875) edited by Charles Francis Adams, p. 147The responsibility of the great states is to serve and not to dominate the world.
Harry S. Truman1884–1972Address to Congress (April 16, 1945)
Howard Zinn1922–2010Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991): “American Ideology”
James Madison1751–1836Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (6 June 1788)
Arthur Miller1915–20051963 interview, used in The Century of the Self (2002)
Winston Churchill1874–1965‘Armistice—or Peace?’ (11 November 1937), quoted in Winston Churchill, Step by Step, 1936–1939 (1939; 1947), p. 174
William James1842–1910Letter to Mrs. Henry Whitman (7 June 1899), in The Letters of William James, ed. Henry James, vol. 2, p. 90 (1926)
Augusto Pinochet1915–2006As quoted in Hoy magazine (Chile), 23 February 1988There are no “human” oppressors. Oppressors have lost their humanity.
Bernie Sandersborn 1941“Man – and Woman” in Vermont Freeman (Mid-February 1972)Princes are not bound to give an account of their Actions but to God alone.
Charles I of England1600–1649Declaration on the dissolution of Parliament (10 March 1628)You long for freedom? You fools! If you took might, freedom would come of itself.
Max Stirner1806–1856The Ego and Its Own (1844), Cambridge 1995 ed., p. 151One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.
John Stuart Mill1806–1873On Representative Government (1861), Ch. I: To What Extent Forms of Government Are a Matter of Choice (p. 155)The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power.
Václav Havel1936–2011Living in Truth (1986), “An Anatomy of Reticence”
Stephen Colbertborn 1964Stephen Colbert—It Gets Better (13 July 2011)
Margaret Thatcher1925–2013Speech to Conservative Central Council (15 March 1986)