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Quotes about power

213 quotes from 148 people

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Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
LLaozi580–501 BCTao Te Ching, Ch. 33, tr. Stephen Mitchell (1988)
- Intelligence
- Wisdom
We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable; so did the divine right of kings.
Ursula K. Le Guin1929–2018National Book Awards, November 2014
- Economics
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
The state is an organ of class rule, an organ for the oppression of one class by another; it creates “order,” which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the collision between the classes.
Vladimir Lenin1870–1924The State and Revolution (1917), Ch. 1, Sec. 1; in Essential Works of Lenin (1966)
- Government
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
He must master or be mastered; while to show mercy was a weakness. Mercy did not exist in the primordial life. It was misunderstood for fear, and such misunderstandings made for death. Kill or be killed, eat or be eaten, was the law; and this mandate, down out of the depths of Time, he obeyed.
Jack London1876–1916The Call of the Wild (1903), Chapter VIIn context
- Nature
In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”, p. 112
Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”, p. 112
Oppressors always expect the oppressed to extend to them the understanding so lacking in themselves.
Audre Lorde1934–1992Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984), “Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface”, p. 63
Men ought either to be well treated or crushed, because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, of more serious ones they cannot
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527The Prince (1532), Chapter IIIIn context
- Enemies
The chief foundations of all states, new as well as old or composite, are good laws and good arms; and as there cannot be good laws where the state is not well armed, it follows that where they are well armed they have good laws.
Niccolò Machiavelli1469–1527The Prince (1532), Chapter XIIIn context
- Laws
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
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations.
James Madison1751–1836Speech at the Virginia Convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (6 June 1788)
- Freedom
Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression.
James Madison1751–1836Letter to Thomas Jefferson (17 October 1788), in The Writings of James Madison, Vol. 5 (1904)
- Government
The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.
James Madison1751–1836Federalist No. 48 (1 February 1788)
- Government