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Quotes about power

213 quotes from 148 people

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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
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
The bigger the unit you deal with, the hollower, the more brutal, the more mendacious is the life displayed.
William James1842–1910Letter to Mrs. Henry Whitman (7 June 1899), in The Letters of William James, ed. Henry James, vol. 2, p. 90 (1926)
In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Kentucky Resolutions (1798), Resolution 9
- Government
My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
Jesus7 BC–AD 30The Gospel of John (1611), John 18:36 (KJV)In context
- Religion
Knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanicks laughs at strength.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia (1759), Ch. XIII
- Knowledge
No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 148 (17 August 1751)
- Laws
Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.
Carl Jung1875–1961The Psychology of the Unconscious (1943), P. 97
- Love
The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Speech at Amherst College (26 October 1963)
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
The tyrant dies and his rule is over; the martyr dies and his rule begins.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s, 1848
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
The superpowers often behave like two heavily armed blind men feeling their way around a room, each believing himself in mortal peril from the other, whom he assumes to have perfect vision.
Henry Kissinger1923–2023The White House Years (1979)
- War & Peace
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
Little men in lofty places, who throw long shadows, because our sun is setting.
Walter Savage Landor1775–1864Imaginary Conversations (1824-1829), “Andrew Marvel and Bishop Parker”
- Clever Jabs