Quotes About Power

Sometimes,' he said, summing up the discussion with an aphorism I have never forgotten, 'if you find yourself stuck in politics, the thing to do is start a fight – start a fight, even if you do not know how you are going to win it, because it is only when a fight is on, and everything is in motion, that you can hope to see your way through.

Caesar is a different category of man altogether. Pompey merely wants to rule the world. Caesar longs to smash it to pieces and remake it in his own image.

So Church and state should be separate?' 'It would be best for both.' 'Then surely we would arrive at a place where the Church would have morals without power, and the state would have power without morality. That is exactly what led the ancients to disaster.

Excellent. I approve of statesmen who write philosophy. It means they have given up all hope of power.

But if you seek power," he said, almost to himself, "and if you are a new man, this is what you have to do. Nobody is ever going to simply hand it to you.

Francis George: I expect to die in my bed, my successor will die in prison, and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.

is one of the most potent myths in politics, believe me.

Maybe so, but in politics how things look is often more important than what they are.

Death solves all problems – no man, no problem.' J. V. Stalin, 1918

Every evil is easily crushed at birth; allow it to become established and it always gathers strength.

ANYTHING will burn with enough gasoline and dynamite.

Harshaw concluded that man, a social animal, could not avoid government, any more than an individual could escape bondage to his bowels

Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst.

Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.

the difference between how a person treats the powerless versus the powerful is as good a measure of human character as I know.

two tests that I use for spotting whether a person is acting like an asshole: • Test One: After talking to the alleged asshole, does the "target" feel oppressed, humiliated, de-energized, or belittled by the person? In particular, does the target feel worse about him or herself? • Test Two: Does the alleged asshole aim his or her venom at people who are less powerful rather than at those people who are more powerful?

A huge body of research—hundreds of studies—shows that when people are put in positions of power, they start talking more, taking what they want for themselves, ignoring what other people say or want, ignoring how less powerful people react to their behavior, acting more rudely, and generally treating any situation or person as a means for satisfying their own needs—and that being put in positions of power blinds them to the fact that they are acting like jerks.

Third, and finally, if you want people to believe the system is fair and effective, it's essential to be tough on the most powerful, profitable, and well-known jerks. If you enforce the rule only with the weak performers, people who are easily replaceable, or who deliver bad news and have the gumption to disagree with superiors—and you allow powerful assholes to run roughshod over anyone they please—people will smell your hypocritical bullshit from a mile away.

No somos conscientes de nuestra divinidad; de que somos parte del gran principio de causalidad del universo. No sabemos cuál es nuestra fuerza y sin saberlo no podemos usarla.

At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.

Kneel and swear to the Lord Dragon, or you will be knelt.

Violence harms the one who does it as much as the one who receives it. You could cut down a tree with an axe. The axe does violence to the tree, and escapes unharmed. Is that how you see it? Wood is soft compared to steel, but the sharp steel is dulled as it chops, and the sap of the tree will rust and pit it. The mighty axe does violence to the helpless tree, and is harmed by it. So it is with men, though the harm is in the spirit.

the wolf may fight the bear but the rabbit always looses