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Power

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“These guys are worse than Robespierre from the French Revolution. Remember, Robespierre wasn't talking about just beheading everybody. That came later. These guys don't even have power. They don't even have power. They'll kill everybody.”
Glenn Beck (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Allow the power of the soul to grow as flagrant as the power of sex.”
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The power of population is so superior to the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man, that premature death must in some shape or other vist the human race.”
Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Man alone has the power of self-realization, the power to be a self-determining subject in all processes of becoming, for he alone has an understanding of potentialities and a knowledge of ‘notions.’ His very existence is the process of actualizing his potentialities, of molding his life according to the notions of reason. P. 9”
Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979) said by 1979 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“However sugarcoated and ambiguous, every form of authoritarianism must start with a belief in some group's greater right to power, whether that right is justified by sex, race, class, religion or all four. However far it may expand, the progression inevitably rests on unequal power and airtight roles within the family.”
Gloria Steinem (1934–2026) first seen 1980 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: If Hitler Were Alive, Whose Side Would He Be On?" in M.S. magazine (October-November 1980); later in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983)
“The power of administrative bodies to make finding of fact which may be treated as conclusive, if there is evidence both ways, is a power of enormous consequence. An unscrupulous administrator might be tempted to say "Let me find the facts for the people of my country, and I care little who lays down the general principles.”
Charles Evans Hughes (1862–1948) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Important Work of Uncle Sam's Lawyers", American Bar Association Journal (April 1931), p. 238, reprinting an address to the Federal Bar Association, Washington, D.C. (February 11, 1931), where the chief justice spoke of…
“My solution to the problem would be to tell [the North Vietnamese Communists] frankly that they've got to draw in their horns and stop their aggression or we're going to bomb them into the Stone Age. And we would shove them back into the Stone Age with Air power or Naval power—not with ground forces.”
Curtis LeMay (1906–1990) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mission With LeMay: My Story (1965), p. 565. In an interview two years after the publication of this book, General LeMay said, "I never said we should bomb them back to the Stone Age. I said we had the capability to do …
“In all ages a chief cause of the intestine disorders of states has been that the natural distribution of power and the legal distribution of power have not corresponded with each other.”
Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) first seen 1832 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (28 February 1832); in Speeches of the Right Honourable T. B. Macaulay, M.P. (1854), p. 91
“Not to recognize the effect of the aura is the greatest tragedy. Your radiant power has more power to repel negativity than anything your brain can think of.”
Harbhajan Singh Yogi (1929–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Here is a land full of power and glory Beauty that words cannot recall Oh her power shall rest on the strength of her freedom Her glory shall rest on us all.”
Phil Ochs (1940–1976) said by 1976 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.”
Alex Carey (1922–1987) said by 1987 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The power of a book lies in its power to turn a solitary act into a shared vision. As long as we have books, we are not alone.”
Laura Bush (born 1946) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Bringing Out the Best in Everyone You Coach : Use the Enneagram System for Exceptional Results (2009) by Ginger Lapid-Bogda, p. 123
“Man has long talked somewhat arrogantly about the conquest of nature; now he has the power to achieve his boast. It is our misfortune-it may well be our final tragedy-that this power has not been tempered with wisdom, but has been marked by irresponsibility; that there is all too little awareness that man is part of nature, and that the price of conquest may well be the destruction of man himself.”
Rachel Carson (1907–1964) said by 1964 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You’re gonna see weird things coming out of this city over the next few years, because you’re watching the death throes of the machine, and you’re watching its power to smear, and its power to intimidate. And the next time you hear anyone say, ‘Let’s fire Lee Atwater,’ the first thing you ought to know is…they are either left-wingers or they have been intimidated by left-wingers.”
Newt Gingrich (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is something absolute, something positive, which gives power just as food gives power. While creative science is a mental food, art is the satisfaction of the soul.”
Hans Hofmann (1880–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlike so many politicians or military leaders they made no attempt to justify their mistakes, to cling to power. For them power held enormous responsibility and was merely invested in them temporarily.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What good is a martyr, Captain Bastable? A martyr shows us the power of faith. But what if that faith is misinformed? While people believe in heroes and the magic power of an individual to save them from the human condition, they will never be free.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If he wished he could resurrect the Dragon Isle’s former might and rule both his own land and the Young Kingdoms as an invulnerable tyrant. But his reading has also taught him to question the uses to which power is put, to question his motives, to question whether his own power should be used at all, in any cause. His reading has led him to this “morality”, which, still, he barely understands.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I now know that legends in themselves have no power. The power comes from the uses that the living make of the legend. The legends merely represent an ideal.”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Elric was recollecting what was best and noblest in his own people and in himself, and even as he celebrated this he mourned the self-obsessed creatures they had become, using their power merely to preserve their power and that, he supposed, was true decay...”
Michael Moorcock (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And then there are unthinking, animal types who seem to be satisfied with a purely physical sense of power (the good combat soldier, who gets his sense of power by developing fighting skills that he is quite content to use in blind obedience to his superiors).”
Theodore Kaczynski (1942–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One does not have freedom if anyone else (especially a large organization) has power over one, no matter how benevolently, tolerantly and permissively that power may be exercised. It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness.”
Theodore Kaczynski (1942–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth about the nature and the power of the elite is not some secret which men of affairs know but will not tell. ... No matter how great their actual power, they tend to be less acutely aware of it than of the resistance of others to its use.”
C. Wright Mills (1916–1962) said by 1962 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You never escape the traps you spin yourself. Only a greater power can break a power, and then you're trapped again. Trapped forever so you cannot die.”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the things that Chávez did when he came to power, he didn’t kill all the oligarchs. There was about 200 families who controlled about 80% of the wealth in Venezuela. He allowed them to live, to carry on. I suspect a lot of them are using their power and control over imports and exports to make it difficult and to undermine Maduro.”
Ken Livingstone (born 1945) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Comments made to Talk Radio cited in "Ken Livingstone: Venezuela crisis due to Chávez's failure to kill oligarchs" The Guardian (3 August 2017). He later clarified that he is "not in favour of killing anyone.
“Meanwhile, hold fast to this thought, and grip it close: yield not to adversity; trust not to prosperity; keep before your eyes the full scope of Fortune’s power, as if she would surely do whatever is in her power to do.”
Seneca the Younger (5 BC–65) said by 65 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“And now, in the final irony, the fact that the US military power has solved the European problem, especially the "German problem", allows Europeans today, and Germans in particular, to believe that American military power, and the "strategic culture" that has created and sustained it, is outmoded and dangerous.”
Robert Kagan (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Feminism, coveting social power, is blind to women’s cosmic sexual power.”
Camille Paglia (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power with God will be the gauge of real power with men.”
James Hudson Taylor (1832–1905) said by 1905 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(When) the people of the land no longer have the power to select and install their leaders, the chiefs lose their mana or power.”
Asesela Ravuvu (1931–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not about Belgian colonies. It is about establishing a new state that is as large as possible and about its governance. It should be clear that in this project there can be no question of granting the Negroes the slightest form of political power. That would be ridiculous. The whites, who lead the posts, have all the power.”
Leopold II of Belgium (1835–1909) said by 1909 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 Leopold II in his instructions to Henry Morton Stanley just before the departure of Stanley's first expedition commissioned by himself.
“In the ideal socialist state, power will not attract power freaks. People who make decisions will show no slightest bias towards their own interests. There will be no way for a clever man to bend the institutions to serve his own ends. And the rivers will run uphill. (p.108)”
David Friedman (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So how do you communicate to a whole group of people? You stand up and take the worst fear symbol [swastika] and say "There, now I've got your fear. Now I've got your fear." And your fear is your power and your power is your control. I'm your king of this whole planet. I'm gonna rule this whole world.”
Charles Manson (1934–2017) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview by Penny Daniels (1989)
“It’s government people, not rich people, who have the power to coerce and make our lives miserable. Coercive power goes a long way toward explaining political corruption.”
Walter E. Williams (1936–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It would be foolish to assert that there is no power above mine. Only the attitude that I take toward it will be quite another than that of the religious age: I shall be the enemy of every higher power, while religion teaches us to make it our friend and be humble toward it.”
Max Stirner (1806–1856) said by 1856 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Dover 2005, p. 184
“Indeed, faithful is the one who - when pleased and glad, his pleasure does not make him enter into sin and falsehood; and when unhappy and angry, his anger does not oust him from the world of righteousness; and when he gains power, his power does not make him commit excess, nor opression, nor make him go for a thing upon which he does not have any right.”
Muhammad al-Baqir (677–733) said by 733 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lord Bute was my schoolfellow. He was a man of taste and science, and I do believe his intentions were good. He wished to blend and unite all parties. The Tories were willing to come in for a share of power, after having been so long excluded—but the Whigs were not willing to grant that share. Power is an intoxicating draught; the more a man has, the more he desires.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have sometimes thought that a squire and a vestry were a king and republic in miniature. The vestry is as tyrannic, in its way, as the squire in his. Any power necessarily leads to abuses of that power. It is difficult to stop any impetus of nature.”
Horace Walpole (1717–1797) said by 1797 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Meditation will help you to find your bonds, loosen them, untie them, and cast your moorings. When you are no longer attached to anything, you have done your share. The rest will be done for you. (…) By the same power that brought you so far, that prompted your heart to desire truth and your mind to seek it. It is the same power that keeps you alive. You may call it Life or the Supreme.”
Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every power vested in a government is in its nature sovereign, and includes by force of the term a right to employ all the means requisite...to the attainment of the ends of such power.”
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) first seen 1791 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bank (23 February 1791)
“In the general course of human nature, a power over a man's subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”
Alexander Hamilton (1757–1804) said by 1804 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.”
Henri Nouwen (1932–1996) first seen 1989 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In the Name of Jesus (1989)
“The word "Blue" does not mean the sensation caused by a gentian on the human eye; but it means the power of producing that sensation: and this power is always there, in the thing, whether we are there to experience it or not, and would remain there though there were not a man left on the face of the earth.”
John Ruskin (1819–1900) first seen 1856 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Volume III, part IV, chapter XII (1856)
“Between death on the field and death by starvation, I do not know that the American people will see any great difference. The end, if successfully reached, would be death in either case. Gentlemen, you have it in your power to kill this government; you have it in your power, by withholding these two bills, to smite the nerve-centers of our Government.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) said by 1881 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Furthermore, if people seek power, it is not for power per se, but for the material advantages that their position and influence could provide them. p. 42”
Alexander Zinoviev (1922–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I argued from the beginning that in the socio-political sphere, Westernism seeks to strengthen the non-democratic aspect of the system of power and administration, to strengthen the role of the state, to introduce non-democratic elements into the system of power and to make democracy a means of manipulating the masses and a camouflage for the totalitarian aspect.”
Alexander Zinoviev (1922–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Crowley wanted to be a magician because he wanted power -- power over other people.”
Colin Wilson (1931–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.”
Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If I could generalize about my work in intelligence in those days, for better or worse, we counted ourselves an elite with a very considerable responsibility: to speak truth to power, like good journalists, that whatever we came upon, however offensive it was to those in power, we told it straight.”
John le Carré (1931–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We know that the simplistic, almost childlike naivety or perhaps the intellectual senility of the architects of this concept have not taken into consideration the practical difficulties and impracticalities of sharing power for the sake of sharing power in our society with political parties that are diametrical opposed to each other.”
Manasa Tugia wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source