POWER QUOTES
quotations about power
Power attracts the corruptible. Suspect all who seek it.
FRANK HERBERT
Chapterhouse: Dune
Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.
LORD ACTON
letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, April 3, 1887
Nothing unmasks a man like his use of power.
ELBERT HUBBARD
The American Bible
Most universities are no longer temples of knowledge, but of power, and true moderns worship there.
DEAN KOONTZ
Brother Odd
Power--a currency that never went out of style.
DAN SIMMONS
The Fall of Hyperion
He who always plays for power will often stand on the neck of one person to reach his arms around the neck of another.
LEWIS F. KORNS
Thoughts
Power has only one duty -- to secure the social welfare of the People.
BENJAMIN DISRAELI
Sybil
To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
BARACK OBAMA
Nobel Lecture, December 10, 2009
In order to obtain and hold power, a man must love it.
LEO TOLSTOY
The Kingdom of God Is Within You
The Age of Reason has turned out to be the Age of Structure; a time when, in the absence of purpose, the drive for power as a value in itself has become the principal indicator of social approval. And the winning of power has become the measure of social merit.
JOHN RALSTON SAUL
Voltaire's Bastards
Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
SAUL ALINSKY
"Tactics", Rules for Radicals
Authority and power are two different things: power is the force by means of which you can oblige others to obey you. Authority is the right to direct and command, to be listened to or obeyed by others. Authority requests power. Power without authority is tyranny.
JACQUES MARITAIN
"The Democratic Charter", Man and the State
The jaws of power are always open to devour, and her arm is always stretched out, if possible, to destroy the freedom of thinking, speaking, and writing.
JOHN ADAMS
A Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law
It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
Freedom from Fear
Power should act and not talk.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
EDMUND BURKE
speech on the Middlesex Elections, 1771
It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.
DEMOSTHENES
attributed, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
An empire built on power cannot attract the affections and loyalty that men bestow willingly on a regime of ideas and beauty.
BRIAN HERBERT & KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Dune: House Harkonnen
Beware the power of the pajama-clad, Cheeto-eating, twitter, blogging hordes. We are legion!
RACHEL MADDOW
The Rachel Maddow Show, May 4, 2009
Power is the exercise of superior force against a body that resists. Suppress the idea of resistance, and the idea of power disappears.
SABINE BARING-GOULD
The Origin and Development of Religious Belief: Christianity