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Power
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“Some of my corresponents seem to think that I can work wonders. Let me say as a devotee of truth that I have no such gift. All the power I may have comes from God. But He does not work directly. He works through His numberless agencies. In this case it is the Congress.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1924 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Young India (8 October 1924). Quoted in Teachings of Mahatma Gandhi (1945), edited by Jag Parvesh Chander, Indian Printing Works, page 242.
“I look upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear because, although while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of the progress. We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Modern Review (October, 1935) p. 412. Interview with Nirmal Kumar Bose (9/10 November 1934)
“This [Christian] proselytization will mean no peace in the world. Conversions are harmful to India. If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytizing. For Hindu households, the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family, coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) first seen 1935 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ‘Harijan’, English weekly, Poona, founded by M.K. Gandhi, dated May 11, 1935
“May God give power to every word of mine. In his name I began to write this, and in His name I close it. May your statesman have the wisdom and courage to respond to my appeal. I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty's Government, should they consider them of any practical use in advancing the object of my appeal.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Hinduism is a living organism. One and indivisible at the root, it has grown into a vast tree with innumerable branches. Knowledge is limitless and so also the application of truth. Everyday we add to our knowledge of the power of Atman (soul) and we shall keep on doing so.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pull yourself together," said the Voice, "for you have to do the job I've chosen for you."Mr. Marvel blew out his cheeks, and his eyes were round."I've chosen you," said the Voice. "You are the only man except some of those fools down there, who knows there is such a thing as an invisible man. You have to be my helper. Help me—and I will do great things for you. An invisible man is a man of power.”
H. G. Wells (1866–1946) said by 1946 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pain is good, I'd say, when it's incidental to Love. In 'I give up my life for my friend' it is my friend, not my death, that matters. And sometimes I needn't give up my life for him, I can live for him, and with him, and the power of the spirit is then equally manifested, I should think.”
E. M. Forster (1879–1970) first seen 1931 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter 285, to George Thomson, 1 August 1931
“It would be easy for us, if we do not learn to understand the world and appreciate the rights, privileges and duties of al other countries and peoples, to represent in our power the same danger to the world that Fascism did.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) said by 1961 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anyone who goes on the sea the year around in a small power boat does not seek danger. You may be absolutely sure that in a year you will have it without seeking, so you try always to avoid it all you can.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1936 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In "On the Blue Water" Appendix originally published in Esquire April 1936
“If there are certain pages of Mr Bertrand Russell's book, Power, which seem rather empty, that is merely to say that we have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) first seen 1939 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Review of Power: A New Social Analysis by Bertrand Russell in The Adelphi (January 1939)
“Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Adults are only less superstitious than children in proportion as they have more power over their environment. In predicaments where everyone is powerless (eg war, gambling) everyone is superstitious”
George Orwell (1903–1950) first seen 1940 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: New Words (1940)
“From Carlyle onwards, but especially in the last generation, the British intelligentsia have tended to take their ideas from Europe and have been infected by habits of thought that derive ultimately from Machiavelli. All the cults that have been fashionable in the last dozen years, Communism, Fascism, and pacifism, are in the last analysis forms of power worship.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) first seen 1944 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The English People" (written Spring 1944, published 1947)
“The Communists had gained power and a vast increase of membership partly by appealing to the middle classes against the revolutionaries, but partly also because they were the only people who looked capable of winning the war.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Nationalism is power-hunger tempered by self-deception.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Through algebra you easily arrive at equations, but always to pass therefrom to the elegant constructions and demonstrations which usually result by means of the method of porisms is not so easy, nor is one's ingenuity and power of invention so greatly exercised and refined in this analysis.”
Isaac Newton (1643–1727) first seen 1691 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Mathematical Papers of Isaac Newton (edited by Whiteside), Volume 7; Volumes 1691-1695 / pg. 261.
“Societies grow into systems. The systems require management and are therefore increasingly wielded, like a tool or a weapon, by those who have power. The rest of the population is still needed to do specific things. But the citizens are not needed to contribute to the form or direction of the society. The more "advanced" the civilization, the more irrelevant the citizen becomes.”
John Ralston Saul (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]e have more than two options... a critique of reason does not have to be a call for the return of superstition and arbitrary power.... [O]ur problems do not lie with reason itself but with our obsessive treatment of reason as an absolute value. Certainly it is one of our qualities, but it functions positively only when balanced and limited by the others.”
John Ralston Saul (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Moral crusade: Public activity undertaken by middle-aged men who are cheating on their wives or diddling little boys. Moral crusades are particularly popular among those seeking power for their own personal pleasure, politicians who can't think of anything useful to do with their mandates, and religious professionals suffering from a personal inability to communicate with their god.”
John Ralston Saul (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[C]ontent [is] an obstacle to the exercise of power.”
John Ralston Saul (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The dominant system of power in the west has been Platonist — a system which functions on highly developed levels of structure and law. This is the school of pure rationality and fear of the undefined — fear of doubt. The minority system has been Socratic or humanist. It is interested in doubt and not overwhelmed by the Platonist-Hobbesian desperate need to tie things down.”
John Ralston Saul (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ultimately a government cannot defeat its people, no matter how much power they assume or how corrupt they are. For us, there is only opportunity.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Might does not equal right...fortunately, the majority holds power by a very small margin. There are certain things the majority has no right to mess with, certain things that are definitely worth fighting for--worth defending and worth offending.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are no longer afraid to voice our opinions, to use our power, to pool our resources, to allow our differences to unite us instead of keeping us apart.”
Margaret Cho (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are religious, then remember that this bomb is Man's challenge to God. It's worded quite simply: We have the power to destroy everything that You have created. If you're not religious, then look at it this way. This world of ours is 4 600 000 000 years old. It could end in an afternoon.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The End of Imagination August, 1998 .
“Power is fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And powerlessness reaffirmed not just by the helplessness of those who have lost, but also by the gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Greater Common Good May, 1999 .
“How carelessly imperial power vivisected ancient civilizations. Palestine and Kashmir are imperial Britain’s festering, blood-drenched gifts to the modem world. Both are fault lines in the raging international conflicts of today.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fortunately, power has a shelf life. When the time comes, maybe this mighty empire will, like others before it, overreach itself and implode from within. It looks as though structural cracks have already appeared... America’s corporate heart is hemorrhaging.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Soviet-style communism failed, not because it was intrinsically evil but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too much power. Twenty-first century market-capitalism, American style, will fail for the same reasons. Both are edifices constructed by the human intelligence, undone by human nature.”
Arundhati Roy (born 1961) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When animus and anima meet, the animus draws his sword of power and the anima ejects her poison of illusion and seduction. The outcome need not always be negative, since the two are equally likely to fall in love (a special instance of love at first sight).”
Carl Jung (1875–1961) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Aion (1951). CW 9, Part II: P.338.30
“A number of students denounce state intervention and the loss of university autonomy. This student sector reflects its class background while forgetting its revolutionary obligation. This sector has not realized that it has an obligation to workers and peasants. Our workers and peasants died beside the students in order to attain power.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When the forces of oppression come to maintain themselves in power against established law; peace is considered already broken.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Where a government has come into power through some form of popular vote, fraudulent or not, and maintains at least an appearance of constitutional legality, the guerrilla outbreak cannot be promoted, since the possibilities of peaceful struggle have not yet been exhausted.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As translated in Guerrilla Warfare : Authorized Edition (2006), p. 14
“The people are weary of being oppressed, persecuted, exploited to the maximum. They are weary of the wretched selling of their labor-power day after day — faced with the fear of joining the enormous mass of unemployed — so that the greatest profit can be wrung from each human body, profit later squandered in the orgies of the masters of capital.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The guerrilla is the combat vanguard of the people, situated in a specified place in a certain region, armed and willing to carry out a series of warlike actions for the one possible strategic end — the seizure of power.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Not for a long time shall we be able to know if President Johnson ever seriously thought of bringing about some of the reforms needed by his people — to iron out the barbed class contradictions that grow each day with explosive power. The truth is that the improvements announced under the pompous title of the "Great Society" have dropped into the cesspool of Vietnam.”
Che Guevara (1928–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion is better described than defined and better felt than described. But if there is any one definition that latterly has obtained acceptance, it is that of Schleiermacher, to the effect that religion consists in the simple feeling of a relationship of dependence upon something above us and a desire to establish relations with this mysterious power.”
Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“History is full of religious wars; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produced these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) said by 1755 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude...we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) said by 1755 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One must give one power a ballast, so to speak, to put it in a position to resist another.”
Montesquieu (1689–1755) said by 1755 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are in a society where the power is in the hands of those who are the worst breed of humanity.”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Rochester, New York (16 February 1965)
“Some think I have lost that poetical ardour and fire 'tis said I once had- the fact is, perhaps I have; but, instead of that, I hope I shall substitute a more thoughtful and quiet power.”
John Keats (1795–1821) first seen 1819 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To George Keats (21 September 1819)
“A drainless shower Of light is poesy; ’tis the supreme of power; ’Tis might half slumb’ring on its own right arm.”
John Keats (1795–1821) said by 1821 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is surrounded with people full of love who demand of him the benefits of love which are in his power: thus he is properly the king of love.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) said by 1662 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You are in the same manner surrounded with a small circle of persons... full of desire. They demand of you the benefits of desire... You are therefore properly the king of desire. ...equal in this to the greatest kings of the earth... It is desire that constitutes their power; that is, the possession of things that men covet.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) said by 1662 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is not your strength and your natural power that subjects all these people to you. Do not pretend then to rule them by force or to treat them with harshness. Satisfy their reasonable desires; alleviate their necessities; let your pleasure consist in being beneficent; advance them as much as you can, and you will act like the true king of desire.”
Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) said by 1662 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Private citizens have more power to do public good and solve common problems than ever before in human history.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Made that statement during a conference in Ottawa, Canada, in March 2006. He concluded that a trend of international goodwill has been developing since the 2004 tsunami and said, with a hint of optimism, that the world …
“Not pleasure, not glory, not power: freedom, only freedom.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) said by 1935 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Rainbow is making room for the young Americans. Twenty years ago, our young people were dying in a war for which they could not even vote. Twenty years later, young America has the power to stop a war in Central America and the responsibility to vote in great numbers. Young America must be politically active in 1984. The choice is war or peace. We must make room for young America.”
Jesse Jackson (1941–2026) said by 2026 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion comforts us for the defeat of our will to power. It adds new worlds to ours, and thus brings us hope of new conquests and new victories. We are converted to religion out of fear of suffocating within the narrow confines of this world.”
Emil Cioran (1911–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source