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Power

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“Those in power (even if it's only for a little while) known nothing about literature, all they care about is power. And I'll play the fool for my readers, if I feel like it, but never for the powerful.”
Roberto Bolaño (1953–2003) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Between Parentheses. Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998–2003. ed. Ignacio Echevarría, trans. Natasha Wimmer (New York: New Directions, 2011 [2004]). 358.
“Individual liberty is individual power, and as the power of a community is a mass compounded of individual powers, the nation which enjoys the most freedom must necessarily be in proportion to its numbers the most powerful nation.”
John Quincy Adams (1767–1848) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James Lloyd (1 October 1822)
“At a certain point power becomes very frightening, and to really begin to reconstruct civilization means to really act in a powerful way. And power is the thing that women have been taught is a real taboo.”
Judy Chicago (born 1939) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In an interview with Ann Stubbs on New York City's WBAI (1981)
“A power has risen up in the government greater than the people themselves, consisting of many and various and powerful interests, combined into one mass, and held together by the cohesive power of the vast surplus in the banks.”
John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) first seen 1836 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech (27 May 1836); this is the source of the phrase, "Cohesive power of public plunder
“People say that knowledge is power. The more knowledge, the more power. Which makes you just about the most powerful person on earth. When it comes to killing people. And then getting away with it.”
Lee Child (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power is for the powerful. Let power fall into the hands of the weak and the rest is tyranny.”
Eric Ambler (1909–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]his feedback loop has re-engineered our system cryptically and turned it into an engine for the concentration of wealth and power. ...It has installed amongst an unelected group of very powerful and wealthy people effective power over any attempt to change from the status quo.”
Bret Weinstein (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I speak in general. I think that Putin does not understand that criticizing power can help this power. How do we fight corruption in the United States? There are two forces - independent media and powerful opposition party.”
Michael McFaul (born 1963) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Izvestia Interview with Michael McFaul" in Carnegie Endowment for World Peace (15 May 2002)
“Your power must lie in the degree to which everybody feels represented.your power lies in you having authority over everybody and bullying you’re not really powerful. You’re a bully.”
Naledi Pandor (born 1953) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think regions are strong when they maintain strong cultural ties to their past and thus a powerful sense of self. Cultural power leads to other forms of power. So for me culture comes first, and contemporary art is a tool and strategy to uncover the past and develop cultural capital.”
Zina Saro-Wiwa (born 1976) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ismail Einashe, ‘It’s Time to Decolonize Environmentalism’: An Interview with Zina Saro-Wiwa, Frieze, September 11, 2018.
“If your son is unclear as to what a highly powerful woman wants from him, he is more likely to go for a woman who is less powerful who has some need for him.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don’t feel powerful at all. I am still under this kind of detention, and you know, this is kind of a bail. Even yesterday I realized while trying to take care of the baby, [at] the park, [I had] been secretly followed and it’s quite fragile. Maybe being powerful means to be fragile.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you want to do evil, science provides the most powerful weapons to do evil; but equally, if you want to do good, science puts into your hands the most powerful tools to do so. The trick is to want the right things, then science will provide you with the most effective methods of achieving them.”
Richard Dawkins (born 1941) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is nothing less powerful than knowledge unattached, and incapable of application. That is why what little knowledge I have has done myself personally so much harm. I do not know much, but if I knew a good deal less than that little I should be far more powerful.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You have to have funny faces and words, you can't just have words. It is a powerful thing, and I think that's why it's hard for people to imagine that women can do that, be that powerful.”
Ellen DeGeneres (born 1958) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ellen DeGeneres, US Magazine, January 1995
“If you try to solve a hard problem, the question is not whether you will use a powerful enough language, but whether you will (a) use a powerful language, (b) write a de facto interpreter for one, or (c) yourself become a human compiler for one.”
Paul Graham (born 1964) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Revenge of the Nerds" May 2002
“An official of the Teamsters' Union, asked by a Senate hearing if his union was really powerful, responded guardedly but elegantly by saying that being powerful was a little like being ladylike: "If you have to say you are, you prob'ly ain't.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) said by 2011 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sex energy is the most powerful of all the stimuli which move people into action. Because it is the most powerful of the emotions, it must be controlled, through transmutation, and converted into other channels.”
Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) said by 1970 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.”
Paulo Freire (1921–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world and is a powerful part of that world changing arsenal.”
Nelson Mandela (1918–2013) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lighting your way to a better future : Speech delivered by Mr N R Mandela at launch of Mindset Network," July 16, 2003 at db.nelsonmandela.org. ; Cited in: Nelson Mandela, ‎S. K. Hatang, ‎Sahm Venter (2012) Notes to the…
“Forbes magazine has named Mel Gibson this year's most powerful celebrity. ... Forbes' least powerful celebrity? [Miller displayed the widely circulated image from the Lynndie England photographs of a hooded Iraqi prisoner with wires attached to his outstretched arms] You're looking at him. Screw this guy. ... [He's a] bad guy.”
Dennis Miller (born 1953) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 22 June 2004
“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 Levi (1919–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he combination of increased digital information and powerful supercomputers offers intelligence agencies the possibility of sifting through massive amounts of bulk data to identify patterns or pursue leads that may thwart impending threats. It’s a powerful tool. But the government collection and storage of such bulk data also creates a potential for abuse.”
Barack Obama (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are living in times that I believe God will judge each of us for what we do and do not do. And if it's not God, it will at least be historians. I will go back to say what I said at the beginning of the year: There is great and powerful evil but there is great and powerful light as well. Get into the light and stand in it because evil is growing rapidly.”
Glenn Beck (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gorgik began to learn that most valuable of lessons without which no social progress is possible: If you are to stay in the good graces of the powerful, you had best, however unobtrusively, please the servants of the powerful.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And of course that is the problem with all truly powerful ideas. And what we have been talking of is certainly that. What it produces is illuminated by it. But applied where it does not pertain, it produces distortions as terrifying as the idea was powerful.”
Samuel R. Delany (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun Is greater than all gold, more powerful Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes Like all that grows or leaps... so is the heart More powerful than all dust.”
Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The recognition of human wretchedness is difficult for whoever is rich and powerful because he is almost invincibly led to believe that he is something. It is equally difficult for the man in miserable circumstances because he is almost invincibly led to believe that the rich and powerful man is something.”
Simone Weil (1909–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The combination of national action—all Catholic Ireland acting as one man—must necessarily have a powerful effect on the minds of the Ministry and of the entire British nation. A people who can be thus brought to act together, and by one impulse, are too powerful to be neglected and too formidable to be long opposed.”
Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Bishop Doyle (29 December 1827), quoted in Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell, The Liberator, Vol. I, ed. W. J. Fitzpatrick (1888), p. 151
“Silence is most powerful. Speech is always less powerful than silence.”
Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A work can be as powerful as it can be thought to be. Actual space is intrinsically more powerful and specific than paint on a flat surface.”
Donald Judd (1928–1994) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 76; As quoted in: De gids, Vol. 131, Nr. 1-5, (1968), p. 262
“[Apple] carries a valuation of an image that is over-inflated due largely to the powerful efforts of Steve Jobs who made the company appear magical. As we end the year, the valuation of the company appears to have massive downward pressure and this is largely because the architect of that massively powerful image has passed — and along with that passing Apple's apparent leadership.”
Rob Enderle (born 1954) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2013 to See HP or RIM Most Improved, Apple Falling and Facebook Toast in IT Business Edge (19 December 2012)
“Who cares if it's legal? I don't care if it's legal. Slavery was legal once too, and not just in America, but just about every other country in the world. The powerful have always legalized their subjugation of the less powerful.”
John Kass (born 1956) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Evil with salad and a nice red" (19 July 2015), Chicago Tribune, Illinois
“They`re powerful parts- all the most powerful parts seem to be written for men....Hamlet has this existentialist crisis .I had one when I was 17. Women are not given that kind of philosophy in their parts”
Angelique Rockas (born 1951) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm mainly concerned about the lack of concern that... we are creating, we are deploying.., maybe the most powerful technology in human history, and a lot of very smart and powerful people are worried about.., "What will the investors say in the next quarterly report?" They think in terms of a few months, or a year or two.”
Yuval Noah Harari (born 1976) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Iron can destroy anything: families, fortunes, governments, whole countries. It's the most powerful stuff in the universe." "Oh?" Orry's skeptical glance fell down on the Plain below. "You really think it's more powerful than a big army?" "Without weapons - without this - there are no big armies.”
John Jakes (1932–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Gaelic League is founded not upon hatred of England, but upon love of Ireland. Hatred is a negative passion; it is powerful - a very powerful destroyer; but it is useless for building up. Love, on the other hand, is like faith; it can move mountains, and faith, we have mountains to move.”
Douglas Hyde (1860–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Douglas Hyde (1986). “Language, lore, and lyrics: essays and lectures”, Irish Academic Press.
“The more noble and powerful a creature is, the more willingly it submits to the truth. Indeed it is powerful and noble precisely because of its submission.”
Guigo I (1083–1136) said by 1136 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?”
Phan Thi Kim Phuc (born 1963) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: NPR in 2008
“They gave each of us their own award and it’s the first time they were doing that –giving two awards to two people for one role. They realized that the movie was very powerful and our acting was equally powerful because Claudine my character wouldn’t have existed if Anna wasn’t there and vice versa”
Eliane Umuhire (born 1986) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The last time I met actor Umuhire Eliane for an interview was in May 2015. That time, the actor was as busy as the proverbial bee. The following month, she would be part of the cast for Imbabazi, a musical based on the …
“The only problem is [that] the accelerator for this is about 10 times more powerful... than we can currently make. So there's lots of challenges for people like me who design accelerators, to try and come up with ways of making them more and more powerful, for very good reason.”
Suzie Sheehy (born 1984) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man is nothing and each one of us, no matter how highly placed, wise, strong, educated, rich or powerful, must humble ourselves before God. He alone is all-powerful and He alone is the giver and taker of life.”
Femi Fani-Kayode (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Curiosity is the most powerful incentive in the world. Why? Because it’s capable of overcoming the two most powerful disincentives in the world: common sense and fear.”
Walter Moers (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It showed what we can achieve -- if we stand together, are a powerful nation. Sport is powerful which is why the World Cups in the various sports are so important. That brings memories, brings people together, helps them communicate and build new-found respect.”
Chester Williams (1970–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wealth is a form of power in our society. With great power comes great responsibility. If you have too much wealth, ipso facto, you have too much power - therefore you have too much responsibility - and you're a kind of dictator.”
Will Self (born 1961) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Moral Maze (BBC Radio 4, 1 October 2008).
“This Being out of God cannot, by any means, be a limited, completed, and inert Being, since God himself is not such a dead Being, but, on the contrary, is Life; — but it can only be a Power, since only a Power is the true formal picture or Schema of Life. And indeed it can only be the Power of realising that which is contained in itself — a Schema.”
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) said by 1814 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The purpose of history is to explain the present—to say why the world around us is the way it is. History tells us what is important in our world, and how it came to be. It tells us why the things we value are the things we should value. And it tells us what is to be ignored, or discarded. That is true power—profound power. The power to define a whole society.”
Michael Crichton (1942–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Myth. Rape is a manifestation of male political and economic power. Fact. Any given black man is three times as likely to be reported a rapist as a white man. Do blacks suddenly have more political and economic power? Maybe rape does not derive from power, but rather from powerlessness.”
Warren Farrell (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two kinds of power. "Power over" is very problematical. "Power within" is very exciting. You can tell the difference by whether you are messing with other people or not.”
Ursula Goodenough (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A power ethical, politic, or moral, to oppress, is not from God, and is not a power, but a licentious deviation of a power; and is no more from God, but from sinful nature and the old serpent.”
Samuel Rutherford (1600–1661) said by 1661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source