Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Power
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“The assumption that whatever we now believe is just common sense, or what we always knew, is a way to save face. It's also a way to forget the power of a story and of a storyteller, the power in the margins, and the potential for change.”
Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Hitler... as dictator of the Reich... has a new personality. He seems to be a disciple of Nietzsche’s Metaphysical divinity – power and the masses of people are to be used as pawns in the chessboard Power Politics.”
Virgil John Tangborn (1920–1944) said by 1944 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are clear and predictable consequences for the world if human beings continue to rape the earth and plunder its resources; to exploit, oppress, and dominate the weak and the poor for the sake of greed and the hunger for power; to depend on ever-rising levels of violence and ever more lethal instruments of death and destruction in order to secure positions of power and privilege.”
Allan Boesak (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your Names success told me movies still have the power to connect with society. As a medium, it still has a power that resonates.”
Makoto Shinkai (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more constrained the power of governments, the more it is diffused, checked and balanced, the less it will aggress on others and commit democide. At the extremes of Power, totalitarian communist governments slaughter their people by the tens of millions, while many democracies can barely bring themselves to execute even serial murderers.”
Rudolph Rummel (1932–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When coal-fired power generation is a necessity for Taiwan, the Linkou Power Plant, equipped with the most advanced generators and pollution control and abatement systems and burning the types of coal that have the fewest impurities, is the model we look toward.”
William Lai (born 1959) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: William Lai (2018) cited in "Premier visits coal-fired power plant to alleviate public concerns" on Focus Taiwan, 18 March 2018.
“On the assumption that the shoot-down was central to the larger plan of Hutu Power and genocide, this would have required a miracle of Hutu incompetence; but it would be entirely understandable if it was carried out by Kagame’s force as part of their planned program to seize state power.”
Edward S. Herman (1925–2017) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Peterson and Herman, “Genocide Denial and Genocide Facilitation: Gerald Caplan and The Politics of Genocide”, MR Online, July 4, 2010.
“Having erased Sedan, we now must erase Waterloo. France cannot be a great continental power unless she is a Rheinish power... French political wisdom has never consisted in immoderate acquisitions. In the days of France's European hegemony, she always preferred influence and infiltration to indigestion.”
Jacques Bainville (1879–1936) first seen 1918 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Action Française (1 December 1918), quoted in William R. Keylor, Jacques Bainville and the Renaissance of Royalist History in Twentieth-Century France (1979), p. 129
“The power grid's exposure risk is greater than that of power plants during natural disasters.”
Lee Chih-kung (born 1959) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Lee Chih-kung (2017) cited in "Taipower to improve electricity towers" on Taipei Times, 4 August 2017.
“A woman’s personal property, by marriage becomes absolutely her husband’s, which, at his death, he may give away from her; while at her death she has no such power, or any power, of disposing of his personal property.”
Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898) said by 1898 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A government, a regime that is not willing to slaughter large numbers of its own citizens to stay in tyrannical power will lose power.”
Alan Charles Kors (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“On Saturday @uniper_energy and Finnish state owned @Fortum will open a brand new coal power plant #Datteln4 in Germany. Those in power clearly lied when they said they cared about their children’s future. If you needed proof that their words and promises were empty, this is it.”
Greta Thunberg (born 2003) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter (27 May 2020)
“In a republican land the power behind the throne is the power. Save yourself the trouble of calling caucuses, printing party journals, distributing ballots, and the like. Let men who are fit for nothing of more consequence do this little work, which is best done by mere nobodies … Don’t drag the engine, like an ignoramus, but bring wood and water and flame, like an engineer.”
Maria Weston Chapman (1806–1885) said by 1885 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he King is God's immediate lieutenant upon earth; and therefore one and the same action is God's by ordinance, and the King's by execution. And the power which resides in the King is not any assuming to himself, nor any gift from the people, but God's power, as well in, as over, him.”
William Laud (1573–1645) first seen 1625 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Sermon preached at Whitehall (19 June 1625), quoted in The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, William Laud, sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Volume I: Sermons (1847), p. 94
“This chapter is about politics in the broadest sense. It is about the emergence of a new kind of leader, a new definition of power, a dynamic power inherent in networks, and the rapidly growing constituency that can make all the difference.”
Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The new political awareness has little to do with parties or ideologies. Its constituents don't come in blocs. Power that is never surrendered by the individual cannot be brokered. Not by revolution or protest but by autonomy, the old slogan becomes a surprising fact: Power to the people. One by one by one. p. 240”
Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) said by 2008 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nuclear power has been a difficult issue for Plaid Cymru. We are opposed to nuclear power but have been forced to weigh concerns against the need to attract well-paid jobs to our rural areas. These concerns have created a compromise position of not opposing the replacement of existing nuclear plants. This has pitched people with concerns about the language and environment against each other.”
Leanne Wood (born 1971) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Plaid's nuclear compromise should change, says Leanne Wood, BBC News, 28 August 2018
“Since the labor-power could be the labor of four, eight, or even twelve hours, the amount of labor expended can be augmented. The value of the labor-power is decided by the consumption goods necessary to maintain the life of the worker, making it possible for that person to exist as a human being who expends the same labor today as yesterday.”
Itsurō Sakisaka (1897–1985) said by 1985 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first (trapping) thing which occurs to a mystic is that he gains the power of unveiling and miracles. He becomes haughty and self conceited upon this power due to his Nafs. He gets temporary happiness but remains away from the Closeness and Union of Allah. Though it is a virtuous act according to the creature but for The Creator it is a great veil.”
Sultan Bahu (1630–1691) said by 1691 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anarchy is a free society where there is no concentrated or centralized power, no State, no king, no emperor, no ruler, no president, no magistrate, no potentate of any character whatever. Law is the enslaving power of man.”
Albert Parsons (1848–1887) said by 1887 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Challenging power structures from the inside, working the cracks within the system, however, requires learning to speak multiple languages of power convincingly.”
Patricia Hill Collins (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In coming into her political estate woman will find a mass of illiteracy to be dispelled. If knowledge is power, ignorance is also power.”
Frances Harper (1825–1911) said by 1911 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I wanted to make it clear that the show’s about a matriarchy. I wanted it to be clear that power can be ugly, and a matriarchy is just as ugly as a patriarchy. It may look a little different, but power is bloody.”
Gillian Flynn (born 1971) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On how the matriarchy is portrayed in Sharp Objects in “Gillian Flynn Isn’t Going to Write the Kind of Women You Want” in Vanity Fair (2018 Jun 28)
“Here is a prayer: As you gain power, may you never forget what it’s like to not have power.”
Celeste Ng (born 1980) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter post December 31, 2018
“He was a strong man in wise enough to realize that beyond power itself is the power of using it wisely.”
Jack Williamson (1908–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power is habit-forming. We grew addicted to it. Few things survive the centuries’ slow decay: senses grow dull; passions grow weak; and ideals die. Only the taste for power lives on as an excuse for survival.”
Jack Williamson (1908–2006) said by 2006 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was all connected, this poetics of listening, word making, and dancing. There was power to transform, to lighten the heaviness of the burden of being human. That's how I came to understand the power of poetry and music. It was a tool, but more than a tool. Words and music evoked a state of mind that lifted us up when racial and historical despair threatened.”
“Nothing is more anarchic than power. Power does what it wants. (Italian: Nulla è più anarchico del potere, il potere fa praticamente ciò che vuole.)”
Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) said by 1975 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“the growers don’t have any heart at all. They have all the economic power, the power in hiring and firing. There have been entire crews of workers fired because one person in the crew said something favorable about the union. There are entire crews of workers who were fired because they had Kennedy stickers on the bumpers of their cars.”
Dolores Huerta (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Organizing is about trying to get people to lose their fear so they know that they have power, and letting them know they don't have to go it alone-they can form a group and then a movement. And then they can bring about change. When I speak to young women I try to remind them that we will never have peace in the world until women take power.”
Dolores Huerta (born 1930) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I had too much power, I thought. I might consume him out of my own curiosity simply because I could. I could stay or go. He could not. He had too much power, I thought. He could reject me. He could break me in two.”
Rebecca Walker (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a great power conflict, the third great power conflict in the European space in a little over a century. It’s the end of the existing world order. Our world is not going to be the same as it was before.”
Fiona Hill (presidential advisor) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Fiona Hill: ‘Elon Musk Is Transmitting a Message for Putin’, POLITICO (October 17, 2022)
“A free-market is the only way to control corporations! As long as government has the power to regulate business, business will control government by funding the candidate that legislates in their favor. A free-market thwarts lobbying by taking the power that corporations seek away from government!”
Mary Ruwart (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A human being has the freedom to become anything. By his own power he can make his life sublime or wretched. By his own power he can reach the heavens or descend to the depths.”
Muktananda (1908–1982) said by 1982 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Words are seeds, Casiopea. With words you embroider narratives, and the narratives breed myths, and there's power in the myth. Yes, the things you name have power.”
Silvia Moreno-Garcia (born 1981) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“64 million poor and low-wealth people were eligible to vote in the last election. That’s nearly one-third of the electorate. Thirty-four million did not vote. And a study that we just recently did, called power unleashed — “Unleashing the Power of Poor and Low-Wealth Voters,” said that the number one reason that poor and low-wealth people did not vote — this actually was a tri-reason...”
William Barber II (born 1963) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rev. William Barber: Millions Are Struggling. So Why Do the Debates Ignore Poverty?, DemocracyNow, (8 October 2020)
“Female power exists; it hangs over every man like a ubiquitous shadow. Indeed, the life cycle of man, from cradle to grave, may be divided into three phases, each of which is defined by the form of female power which dominates him: motherpower, bridepower, or wifepower.”
Chinweizu Ibekwe (born 1943) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Art is reimbued with its genuine power and profundity in the architectural realm. Its real power lies in the cathedral, the shopping center, the hospital. Not in the studios of Soho and Chelsea or the galleries of Madison Avenue or Bond Street.”
Brian Clarke (1953–2025) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Times, 1990.
“It is one of our Theosophical duties to show men the way to wisdom, to peace, to happiness, to strength, and to spiritual power - the real powers, the powers which are safe and clean and sweet, which make a man lovable, which make him compassionate, which guarantee that power put into his hands will be wielded never for self but always in order to benefit others.”
Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... Faraday's momentous discoveries did not immediately launch an electric power industry. For one thing, nobody yet imagined it would be possible to transmit this power over long distances. That realization did not come until the end the century, when physicists had acquired a formal mathematical understanding of how magnetism and electricity work together.”
Margaret Wertheim (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What did I tell you?" said my neighbour excitedly. "Force of mind, that's what those people use; that's why their hands are vestigial. Pure will-power." The dwarf seemed to hear him, for he looked towards us. "I am surprised," he sneered, "that you even know of such a thing as will-power. I judged by your reflexes that you had only instincts.”
John Wyndham (1903–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our 87-year-old neighbor has no power, so we’re storing his food on a freezer hooked to a generator. Our family friend is dying of pancreatic cancer and had to be transferred from home hospice, because he has no power. Hope your shareholders feel good about their dividends.”
Katherine Maher (born 1983) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Twitter, (9 Aug 2020)
“The rich and their lobbyists have taken firm control of the levers of power in Washington and state capitals while remaking the rules in their own interest. They have also imbued private organizations with the power to make rules that few outside the process understand. These same people... [are] the primary source of campaign donations that put politicians in office and keep them there.”
David Cay Johnston (born 1948) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It isn't the gold that changes man, it is the power which gold gives to man that changes the soul of man. This power, though, is only imaginary. If not recognized by other men, it does not exist.”
B. Traven (1882–1969) said by 1969 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The person holding supreme power always feels that others are plotting a power grab.”
“Power is not opposed to freedom. It is precisely freedom that distinguishes power from violence or coercion.”
Byung-Chul Han (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An absolute power would be one that never becomes apparent, never pointed to itself, one that rather blended completely into what goes without saying. Power shines in its own absence.”
Byung-Chul Han (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power tends to reduce openness... Power tries to solidify and stabilize its position by eradicating spaces open to play, or incalculable spaces.”
Byung-Chul Han (born 1959) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Law is as much a Rule to Her, as to the least of Those who obey her; the fixt Measure, not only of Her governing Power, but even of Her Will to govern; and She makes no other Use of that Power, with which the Laws have invested Her, than to give Life and Force to them.”
Francis Atterbury (1663–1732) first seen 1704 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Duty of Publick Intercession and Thanksgiving for Princes. A Sermon Preach'd before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margaret's, Westminster, on Wednesday, March 8, 1704, in Francis Atterbury, Sermons and Disc…
“If the people in power don’t do enough to integrate Christians then they give oxygen to Islamism. If they have countries where everybody is Muslim in power then you give vent to the idea that Islam should be supreme.”
Matthew Hassan Kukah (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source