Quotes About Power

Their only weapon is shame, if the powerful can even feel it.

I'm sorry to pull you out of your classes, but your adviser understands," Kitteredge said. "He's a friend of the family." So that's it, Neal thought. You bought me; you own me.

Cops fall into two categories—grass eaters and meat eaters. The grass eaters are the small-timers—they take a cut from the car-towing companies, they get a free coffee, a sandwich. They take what comes, they're not aggressive. The meat eaters are the predators, they go after what they want—the drug rips, the mob payoffs, the cash.

All this and the wine's coming in and out, and by the time the waiters set the espressos down Callan's about half in the bag. He watches Calabrese take a long sip from an espresso cup. Then the boss says, 'Tell me why I shouldn't kill you.'  One motherfuck of an essay question. 

Guns and dope are the soup and sandwich of American crime.

People don't run the cartel; the cartel runs people.

At least Barrera didn't stick the envelope into her panties.

They say that love conquers all. They're wrong, Keller thinks. Hate conquers all. It even conquers hate.

The mob guys know it. They know that you bribe a politician only once. After that, you blackmail him.

If you let people believe that you're weak, sooner or later you're going to have to kill them.

Professor Asshole would never hold a door open, considering it a condescending, paternalistic passive-aggressive gesture perpetuating the male power structure.

The cartel has bought the White House. We've crossed the border now.

Él que menos habla es el más chingón. He who speaks least has the most power.

We rule over gangs—Crips and Bloods and Trinitarios and Latin Lords. Dominicans Don't Play, Broad Day Shooters, Gun Clappin' Goonies, Goons on Deck (seems to be a theme), From Da Zoo, Money Stackin' High, Mac Baller Brims. Folk Nation, Insane Gangster Crips, Addicted to Cash, Hot Boys, Get Money Boys.

Over my forty-year career as a defense attorney, I regularly came into contact with people who lied, cheated, and tried to bend the system so that they would come out on top. Most of them worked for the government. —OSCAR GOODMAN, BEING OSCAR

People don't usually go off decapitating each other or committing mass murder just because they hate people in another group. These things happen because soul-dead political leaders are in a struggle for power and use ethnic violence as a tool in that struggle. —David Brooks

If you let people believe that you are weak, sooner or later you're going to have to kill them.

She's also ruthless - it's love me or off with your head. She's the Red Queen

I'm not— Lady Macbeth Lucrezia Borgia Catherine the Great. I am —a woman doing what she has to do. I am —the woman you made me. Elena is at war.

Deliver my soul from the sword. My love from the power of the dog.

Many a time a poor soul has been put before the dock, to save the neck of the wealthy.

The Great Depression." What better way to control a free society than to take away their ability to buy, save, and grow?

There is nothing more seductive — and dangerous — than being listened to.

No man's plenum ... is impervious to the awl of God's will.