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Power

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“The utmost care and forethought, and no little manipulative skill, are necessary to control the defining power of the lens or detail printing power of a sharply focused negative.”
Alfred Horsley Hinton (1863–1908) said by 1908 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just as we have the power to harm the ocean, we have the power to put in place policies and modify our own behavior in ways that would be an insurance policy for the future of the sea, for the creatures there, and for us, protecting special critical areas in the ocean.”
Sylvia Earle (born 1935) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration in:Effect of Violent Video Games on Kids; Dogs' Efforts to Keep Mail Safe; Spanish Government Sues Over Oil Spills,CNN.com, May 18, 2003
“In this time of the great struggle for a new art we fight like disorganized 'savages' against an old, established power. The battle seems to be unequal, but spiritual matters are never decided by numbers, only by the power of ideas. The dreaded weapons of the 'savages' are their new ideas. New ideas kill better than steel and destroy what was thought to be indestructible.”
Franz Marc (1880–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the religious age, the religious hierarchy wields power; in the political age, the ruler, nobles and commoners; in the economic, the hierarchy of wealth. The development of Europe during the last six centuries has consisted in the progressive shifting of the hierarchy of power from one set of functions to another. (p. 132)”
Lancelot Law Whyte (1896–1972) said by 1972 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Average Americans have little or no influence over the making of U.S. government policy. ... Wealthy Americans wield a lot of influence. By investing money in politics, they can turn economic power into political power.”
Benjamin Page (born 1939) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Benjamin I. Page and Martin Gilens, Democracy in America?: What Has Gone Wrong and What We Can Do About It (University of Chicago Press: 2017), p. 90
“We need a shift in political "power—specifically … a shift in who wields it, a shift away from corporations and toward communities, which in turn depends on whether or not the great many people who are getting a rotten deal under our current system can build a determined and diverse enough social force to change the balance of power. p. 25”
Naomi Klein (born 1970) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is the problem of accurately measuring the relative power of nations which goes far to explain why wars occur. War is a dispute about the measurement of power. War marks the choice of a new set of weights and measures.”
Geoffrey Blainey (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The secret of power is that power and responsibility are the same thing.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The mystery of the gray government", Unqualified Reservations (June 6, 2007).
“It was democratic power that executed Socrates; even lynching is a fundamentally democratic exercise of power. Lynching is mob violence; mob violence, unless the mob is an organized mob, is democratic violence. It is useless to pretend that mob violence was not an essential aspect of the American Revolution, for instance.”
Curtis Yarvin (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Incorporeal hypostases, in descending, are distributed into parts, and multiplied about individuals with a diminution of power; but when they ascend by their energies beyond bodies, they become united, and proceed into a simultaneous subsistence, through exuberance of power.”
Porphyry (philosopher) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No power on earth can stop the power of the people.”
Anwar Ibrahim (born 1947) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anwar Ibrahim (2013) cited in: "The wild ride of Anwar Ibrahim" in Aljazeera, 3 May 2013.
“The Republican Party, of which I am a member, stands pledged since 1856 to the extermination, so far as the federal government has the power, the twin relics of barbarism, slavery, and polygamy. They have this power in the territories of the United States.”
Owen Lovejoy (1811–1864) first seen 1838 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in His Brother's Blood: Speeches and Writings, 1838–64 (2004), edited by William Frederick Moore and Jane Ann Moore, p. 192
“Now as the former motives of the apostles, invariably and up to the time of the fabrication, had been aimed at worldly wealth and power, it follows with all moral certainty that the possession of worldly wealth and power was also the object of the apostles in the fabrication of their new doctrine.”
Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694–1768) said by 1768 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There's no such thing as sexism against men. That's because sexism is prejudice + power. Men are the dominant gender with power in society.”
Anita Sarkeesian (born 1983) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: @femfreq (Nov 14, 2014)
“European civilisation is unique because it is the only civilisation which has imposed itself on the rest of the world. It did this by conquest and settlement; by its economic power; by the power of its ideas; and because it had things that everyone else wanted. Today every country on earth uses the discoveries of science and the technologies that flow from it, and science was a European invention.”
John Hirst (1942–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The "power of the people" is greater than the "people in power" ... Change does not come from Washington, it comes to Washington.”
Cory Booker (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When power is gone the memory of power lingers.”
Guy Gavriel Kay (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Admittedly, righteousness is weak unless it is backed by power, but power devoid of righteousness is evil. If most people cast their lot with the latter, then evil will prey forever upon humankind, as wolves and tigers prey upon lambs.”
Liu Xiaobo (1955–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where mass-mobilizing ‘revolutionary Marxists’ have come to power, and remained in power sufficiently long to create a viable political system, what they have generally succeeded in creating is a reasonable analogue of the Fascist state.”
A. James Gregor (1929–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more sectors in which the organization subject to rationality norms is constrained; the more power the organization will seek over remaining sectors of its task environment... many constraints and unable to achieve power in other sectors of its task environment will seek to enlarge the task environment.”
James D. Thompson (1920–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 36-37; As cited in: Christopher A. Simon (2001). To Run a School: Administrative Organization and Learning, p. 40
“Outstanding American men seem to see power as something you use in order to correct someone who's wrong, to change them, to show them you see more in this situation than the boss does. Outstanding American women, on the other hand, see power as a resource, something you can use to get people together, to gain commitment.”
David C. McClelland (1917–1998) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: David C. McClelland (1998) in: Katherine Adams, "Interview by David C. McClelland , in Competency, vol. 4 no.3, Spring 1997, pp.18–23; Republished in orientamento.it, 19/11/2015
“If welfare and equality are to be primary aims of law, some people must necessarily possess a greater power of coercion in order to force redistribution of material goods. Political power alone should be equal among human beings; yet striving for other kinds of equality absolutely requires political inequality.”
Tibor R. Machan (1939–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot give an official power to do right without at the same time giving him power to do wrong.”
Leonard D. White (1891–1958) said by 1958 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[The model towards which strategic choice analysis led would therefore] direct our attention towards those who possess the power to decide upon an organization’s structural rationale, towards the limits upon that power imposed by the operational context, and towards the process of assessing constraints and opportunities against values in deciding organizational strategies.”
John Child (born 1940) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 13; As cited in Child (1997)
“Everything ahead of us is dangerous. There isn’t a power the President has asked for that isn’t dangerous. But there isn’t a power or a combination of powers he has asked for so dangerous as continuing to do nothing.”
Wallace Brett Donham (1877–1954) said by 1954 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As cited by , "Harvard Business School Centennial," at harvard.edu, October 14, 2008.
“Property rights define the institutional basis of power relations in production, exchange and accumulation, rather than just the relationship of actors to property. The ability to manipulate property rights affords the state important leverage over the balance of power among actors in the economy.”
Leon N. Lindberg (born 1932) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John L. Campbell and Leon N. Lindberg. "Property rights and the organization of economic activity by the state." American sociological review (1990): 634-647. p. 642
Also quoted by: John L. Campbell
“Always an extremist, [Mussolini] inclined to the belief of Babeuf and Blanqui in violent insurrection by a minority in order to establish authoritarian rule. His articles reveal a retreat from belief in class solidarity and a growing attachment to revolution for revolution’s sake, power for the sake of power.”
Denis Mack Smith (1920–2017) said by 2017 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can suggest no remedy, but would prefer present evils to those resulting from the creation of too centralized a power; and the answer, to my mind, is obvious. The true remedy must be found, not in placing our dependence upon the discretion of any one, but of every one,—that is, again, upon liberty, rather than upon power and restraint.”
George Howard Earle Jr. (1856–1928) first seen 1907 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking out against a central bank after the Panic of 1907. From "A Central Bank as a Menace to Liberty," by George H. Earle, Jr. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. XXXI No. 2: Les…
“It was in Nazi Germany that Bolshevism was perfected; there, political power truly absorbed all spheres of existence, from the economy to religion, from technology to the soul. The irony, the tragedy, of history was that both totalitarian regimes, identical in their aim for absolute power over dehumanized beings, presented themselves as protection from the danger presented by the other.”
François Furet (1927–1997) said by 1997 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some big businessmen did contribute to the Nazi election funds but German capitalism cannot be regarded, on the evidence, as having collectively brought fascism to power in any direct sense. Fascism in Germany was a mass movement brought to power through collusion with a bankrupt but traditional elite, not as the puppet of big business.”
Richard Overy (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When once you have plunged into the strife for power, it is the fear of those who are seeking for power over you that so easily persuades to all the great crimes.”
Auberon Herbert (1838–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power looks startlingly similar wherever you go. Power does not want you to forget that you are small and alone.”
Sarah Zettel (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The totalitarian State does not tolerate any ‘second government,’ any challenge to the power of the all-wise dictator. [As the Nazi party has stated] ‘Within the constitution of the Third Reich any position independent of the will of the Fuehrer no longer exists. The principle of separation of power is a thing of the past. Only the Party has a privileged position.’”
Günter Reimann (1904–2005) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 13 (Zeitschrift der Akademie fuer Deutches Recht, July 1, 1938, p. 513)
“[F]ascism is a new brand of feudalism in which the private capitalist has become merely a tool of the State—where absolute power has entirely taken the place of money power.”
Günter Reimann (1904–2005) said by 2005 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lenin wanted power. This may sound self-evident; after all, every politician is assumed to lust for power. But deep down, Lenin’s rivals did not want it.”
Richard Pipes (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bottom power means that a woman simply has a good root to tap into, from time to time, somebody else's power. And then of course we have to wonder what happens when that somebody else is in a bad mood, or sick, or impotent.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born 1977) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Should All Be Feminists - April 12, 2013
“Hobbesian state power was not intended for greatness, but to curtail challenges from below. It succeeded when its subjects merely stood still or got out of its way. Their immobility was the outward sign of their fear ... a fear all the more potent for the minimal power that aroused it.”
Corey Robin (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The power to kill becomes the ultimate power in the hands of a man who has no reservations about employing it.”
Glen Cook (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Social Democracy must remain for itself, must seek for and generate its power within itself. Every power outside of ourselves on which we seek to lean is for us only weakness. In the consciousness of our strength, in our faith in the world-conquering mission of socialism lies the secret of our extraordinary, almost miraculous success.”
Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Those who sit atop the resulting pyramids of power all too often use their favored positions for personal gain at expense of those less favored. It was true for the kings and emperors who ruled by divine right. It is true for many of the political elites who hold power by electoral mandate. And it is true for many corporate CEOs, as the Enron scandal revealed so dramatically.”
David Korten (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As power begets power and competition becomes more ruthless, the appetites of the wealthy become more extravagant and the excluded become more desperate. The growing gap erodes trust and institutional legitimacy, which in turn compels an ever greater diversion of resources to security measures — from car alarms and security guards to police and prisons.”
David Korten (born 1937) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If the environment can be simplified down to the point where the rules do explain a great deal, those who formulate the rules and techniques have also greatly expanded their power. They have, correspondingly, diminished the power of those who do not.”
James C. Scott (1936–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They (i. e., the Olympian gods) operate on moral principles. You have to break a promise to them, or break a rule, for them to get power over you.” Victor commented darkly, “That explains why religions have rules no one can follow. If everyone is a sinner, by definition, everyone is under their power.”
John C. Wright (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The maximum of motive power resulting from the employment of steam is also the maximum of motive power realizable by any means whatever.1878”
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Could a motion (that of radiating heat) produce matter (caloric)? No, undoubtedly; it can only produce a motion. Heat is then the result of a motion. Then it is plain that it could be produced by the consumption of motive power, and that it could produce this power.”
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Is heat the result of a vibratory motion of molecules? If... so, quantity of heat is simply quantity of motive power. As long as motive power is employed to produce vibratory movements, the quantity of heat must be unchangeable... but when it passes into movements of sensible extent, the quantity of heat can no longer remain constant.”
Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (1796–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mexico will emerge as a major global economic power. Ranked fourteenth or fifteenth early in the century, it will be firmly within the top ten by 2080. With a population of 100 million, it will be a power to be reckoned with anywhere in the world—except on the southern border of the United States.”
George Friedman (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dark net is a world of power and freedom: of expression, of creativity, of information, of ideas. Power and freedom endow our creative and our destructive faculties. The dark net magnifies both, making it easier to explore every desire, to act on every dark impulse, to indulge every neurosis.”
Jamie Bartlett (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your opponents would love you to believe that it's hopeless, that you have no power, that there's no reason to act, that you can't win. Hope is a gift you don't have to surrender, a power you don't have to throw away.”
Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Violence is the power of the state; imagination and non-violence the power of civil society.”
Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source