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Power

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“True freedom—with the power to make certain she didn’t ever have to be dependent upon anyone else, listener or spren. True freedom couldn’t exist while someone else had power over you.”
Brandon Sanderson (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Obtain power, then, by all means; power is the law of man; make it yours.”
Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849) first seen 1795 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: An Essay on the Noble Science of Self-Justification" (1795); Tales and Novels, vol. 1, p. 206.
“It is praiseworthy when you give not only to your power but beyond your power.”
T. B. Joshua (1963–2021) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the need to give what you cherish most - "Widow Gets N200 000 From TB Joshua" The PM News (August 28 2009)
“Perhaps there is no such thing as unilateral power. After all, the man "in power" depends on receiving information all the time from outside. He responds to that information just as much as he "causes" things to happen...it is an interaction, and not a lineal situation.”
Gregory Bateson (1904–1980) said by 1980 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power is not a material possession that can be given, it is the ability to act. Power must be taken, it is never given.”
William Powell (author) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In Syria, we witnessed "a successful attempt by the Russians at replacing bully power with a balance of power.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Putin Saves Us From Ourselves," WorldNetDaily.com, March 23, 2012.
“The nice men in periwigs who came up with the Fourth Amendment were recklessly naive to imagine that branches of a government, each of whose power is enhanced when the power of the other branches grows, would serve to check one another.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quacking Over Ducksters As Freedoms Go Poof", WorldNetDaily.com, January 3, 2014.
“If the Bill of Rights was intended to place strict limits on federal power and protect individual and locality from the national government—the 14th Amendment effectively defeated that purpose by placing the power to enforce the Bill of Rights in federal hands, where it was never intended to be.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Conned About Marriage, Constitution and States’ Rights”, WorldNetDaily.com, January 23, 2014.
“When it comes to philosophical convictions, most conservatives more closely resemble their beltway liberal friends than Republican Party voters. From the country's dismal finances and propagandized population, a sizable segment has concluded that conservative power-brokers and liberal power-brokers are indistinguishable.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Trump Doesn’t Need to Talk Like A Conservative," The Unz Review, March 19, 2016.
“Ultimately, the State has overwhelming power when compared to the limited resources and power of an accused.”
Ilana Mercer first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Flynn's Sin Was Lying To Liars, Not Colluding With Russia," WND.COM, December 7, 2017
“Writing with a simplified alphabet checked the power of custom of an oral tradition but implied a decline in the power of expression and the creation of grooves which determined the channels of thought of readers and later writers.”
Harold Innis (1894–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Remember, each one of us has the power to change the world. Power works in mysterious ways. You don’t have to do much. Visualise the domino effect And just start thinking PEACE. The message will circulate faster than you think. It’s Time For Action. The Action is PEACE. Spread the word. Spread PEACE. I love you!”
Yoko Ono (born 1933) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 9 October 2009.
“No, fascism is not a power standing above class, nor government of the petty bourgeoisie or the lumpen-proletariat over finance capital. Fascism is the power of finance capital itself.”
Georgi Dimitrov (1882–1949) said by 1949 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nature has put itself the problem of how to catch in flight light streaming to the Earth and to store the most elusive of all powers in rigid form. The plants take in one form of power, light; and produce another power, chemical difference.”
Julius Robert von Mayer (1814–1878) said by 1878 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The city is not just a collection of ramparts with houses, but also a spiritual power. ... It is capable of directing and changing a man's spiritual life. It brings its power to bear in him and changes his life.”
Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The biblical view is not just apolitical but antipolitical in the sense that it refuses to confer any value on political power, or in the sense that it regards political power as idolatrous.”
Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once the church is ready to associate with instituted power it is obliged to associate with all and sundry forms of the state. The scandal is that each time the church seeks to justify both its adaptation and the existing power. It continues to legitimize the state and to be an instrument of its propaganda.”
Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We can denounce not merely the abuses of power but power itself.”
Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Racism is a system of power and in the absence of power you cannot be considered a racist.”
Sister Souljah (born 1963) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: We Are at War", speech at Cheyney State University (1994)
“It may come as a surprise to some academics, but there is a marked relationship between economic power and political power.”
Michael Parenti (1933–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any power or structure that seeks to maintain full control and is not open in any way to loosening its power eventually makes itself ridiculous.”
Ai Weiwei (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Words are pale shadows of forgotten names. As names have power, words have power. Words can light fires in the minds of men. Words can wring tears from the hardest hearts. There are seven words that will make a person love you. There are ten words that will break a strong man’s will. But a word is nothing but a painting of a fire. A name is the fire itself.”
Patrick Rothfuss (born 1973) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Return, O Power of the Pentecost, return to Thy people! Shed down Thy flame on many heads! To us, as to our fathers and to those of the old time before them, give fullness of grace! Without Thee we can do nothing; but filled with the Holy Ghost, the excellency of the power will be of Thee, O God! and not of us.”
William Arthur (minister) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Power calls to those who are hungry for power, and there are hungry idiots everywhere.”
Laura Anne Gilman (born 1967) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free.”
Julian Assange (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Folly is built on pride, on pride and power, And power ends in weariness and duty: Even the hooded eagle cannot soar to heaven .”
Michael Roberts (writer) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In Our Time", 1939. Quoted in Skelton, Robin, Poetry of the Thirties, Penguin Books, 1963 (pp. 53).
“The most regretful people on earth are those who felt the call to creative work, who felt their own creative power restive and uprising, and gave to it neither power nor time.”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want power. I suppose that's the story of my life - seeking power.”
Diane Abbott (born 1953) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Diane Abbott: My struggles and triumphs" BBC News (2 December 2016).
“The diverse natures of men, combined with the necessity to satisfy in some manner the sentiment which desires them to be equal, has had the result that in the democracies they have endeavored to provide the appearance of power in the people and the reality of power in an elite.”
Vilfredo Pareto (1848–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) first seen 1971 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Variant: When the power of love divinely replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God. Source: Sri Chinmoy (1971): My rose petals: the master's extemporaneous talks in Europe, Sri Chinmoy Centre, p. 31. Goo…
“Science depends on outer experiment. Spirituality depends on inner searching and seeking. A scientist discovers the power that very often threatens even his own life. A spiritual seeker discovers the power that guides and moulds his life into a life of divine fulfilment.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“World-peace can be achieved when the power of love replaces the love of power.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have a habit to be reborn as a writer. So if I find myself in a crisis that I have never experienced, I can be born, or I can write something, by the power of the habit. Even a soldier or a farmer or a fisherman can be reborn by the power of the habit when he meets the greatest crisis of his life.”
Kenzaburō Ōe (1935–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Knowledge alone is not power, knowledge plus action equals power. Knowledge is useless without action and vice versa.”
Lupe Fiasco (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The only power fear has is the power you give it.”
Steve Maraboli (born 1975) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The single biggest challenge is rescuing journalism from its deferential role as the stenographer of great power. The United States has constitutionally the freest press on earth, yet in practice it has a media obsequious to the formulas and deceptions of power. That is why the US was effectively given media approval to invade Iraq, and Libya, and Syria and dozens of other countries.”
John Pilger (1939–2023) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Real journalists act as agents of people, not power" Daily Star (Bangladesh) (16 January 2019).
“I did not capture power. I was made to assume power.”
Ziaur Rahman (1936–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wielders of power did not speak for it, nor did they naturally serve it. Their interest was to use and develop power, no less natural and necessary than liberty but more dangerous.”
Bernard Bailyn (1922–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not the misuse of power that is evil; the very existence of power is an evil.”
Charles A. Reich (1928–2019) said by 2019 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The conflict that exists today is no more than an old-style struggle for power, once again presented to mankind in semireligious trappings. The difference is that, this time, the development of atomic power has imbued the struggle with a ghostly character; for both parties know and admit that, should the quarrel deteriorate into actual war, mankind is doomed.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) first seen 1955 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (Apr 1955) unfinished address he was writing prior to death.
“The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.”
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I don't care for the applause one gets by saying what others are thinking; I want actually to change people's thoughts. Power over people's minds is the main personal desire of my life; and this sort of power is not acquired by saying popular things.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Lucy Martin Donnelly, February 10, 1916
“Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.”
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) first seen 1938 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The New York Herald-Tribune Magazine (6 March 1938)
“The populace judges of the power of God by the power of the priests.”
Napoleon (1769–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mrs. Elvsted: You have some hidden motive in this, Hedda! Hedda: Yes, I have. I want for once in my life to have power to mold a human destiny. Mrs. Elvsted: Have you not the power? Hedda: I have not—and never had it. Mrs. Elvsted: Not your husband's? Hedda: Do you think it's worth the trouble? Oh, if only you could understand how poor I am. And fate has made you so rich!”
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) said by 1906 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What it lies in our power to do, it lies in our power not to do.”
Aristotle (384–322 BC) said by 322 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God" This canon is the mother of all canons against heresy; the causes of error are two; the ignorance of the will of God, and the ignorance or not sufficient consideration of his power.”
Francis Bacon (1561–1626) said by 1626 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The alleged power to charm down insanity, or ferocity in beasts, is a power behind the eye.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) said by 1882 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlimited exploitation of cheap labour-power is the sole foundation of their power to compete.”
Karl Marx (1818–1883) said by 1883 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source