Quotes About Power

But popularity and power, as he well knew, are separate entities. Often the most powerful men in a state can pass down a street unrecognised, while the most famous bask in feted impotence.

Since when has idiocy been a bar to advancement in politics?

The foundations of Empire are often occasions of woe; their dismemberment, always.

There are no lasting victories in politics, there is only the remorseless grinding forward of events.

Politics is a country idiot capable of concentrating on only one thing at a time.

The only thing you can be sure of, Herr March, is that - whoever wins - still standing when the smoke of battle clears will be the banks of the cantons of Switzerland.

there were tiny swastikas on the taps. (There was no escaping the Führer's aesthetic, thought Hartmann, not even when one took a shit.)

Cromwell had the power, but to what end? Each time he tried to restore Parliament, it antagonised him, and he dissolved it. The army was divided, the country sullen. He lived in a trap of his own making.

It is my first lesson in the cabalistic power of "secret intelligence": two words that can make otherwise sane men abandon their reason and cavort like idiots.

Learned minds can still believe wicked things, especially when their own interests are at stake.

The trouble with Lucious, he said, putting his feet up on the desk after this cousin has gone, is that he thinks politics is a fight for justice. Politics is a profession.

siempre se puede decir una cosa de la política: jamás permanece estática. Si los buenos tiempos no duran eternamente, los malos tampoco.

It is in the nature of things that not all politicians can achieve greatness.

The trouble with Lucius," he said, putting his feet up on the desk after his cousin had gone, "is that he thinks politics is a fight for justice. Politics is a profession.

What are the only weapons I possess, Tiro? he asked me, and then he answered his own question. These. he said, gesturing at his books. Words. Caesar and Pompey have their soldiers, Crassus his wealth, Clodius his bullies on the street. My only legions are my words. By language I rose, and by language I shall survive.

Nowadays, of course, most senators employ a slave or two two out their speeches; I have even heard of some who have no idea of what they are going to say until the next is place in front of them; how these fellows can call themselves statesman defeats me

There are few forces in politics harder to resist than a feeling that something is inevitable

It sounded legitimate when one put it that way – governing through the people: what could be fairer? – but really 'the people' were the mob

Cuáles son las únicas armas que poseo, Tiro? -me preguntó, y él mismo respondió-: Estas -dijo, señalando sus libros-. Las palabras. César y Pompeyo tienen soldados; Craso, dinero; Clodio, los matones de la calle. Mis legiones son mis palabras. Gracias a ellas he llegado donde estoy, y gracias a ellas sobreviviré.

a man of great ambition and boundless stupidity, two qualities which in politics often go together.

Often the most powerful men in a state can pass down a street unrecognized, while the most famous bask in feted impotence

Go and do your business, Mr Nayler. There will soon be heads on spikes all over London. But bear in mind that one day one of them may be mine.

Robert Harris

It seemed to me at the time - and still does now, only even more so - an act of madness for a man to pursue power when he could be sitting in the sunshine and reading a book