Quotes About Power

Just dismissing them gave me a kind of power over them. That was the whole method of the con, even when I was conning myself. These

The advantage of possessing a great empire is not to be able to do the evil that one desires, but to do all the good that one possibly can.

Now that reading and writing are universal accomplishments, books are not bought so freely as they were about 1820. . . . [I]n fact, book-buying does not increase in proportion with the power of reading printed matter. People prefer periodical trash, snippets of twaddle. [February 1894, editor's introduction to Dana Estes & Company's The Betrothed, by Sir Walter Scott]

Edward is 'going the dictator way, and is pro-German,

A driver is a king on a vinyl bucket-seat throne, changing direction with the turn of a wheel, changing the climate with a flick of the button, changing the music with the switch of a dial.

It was an era of expansion, but also of plunder. Bribery secured public contracts and the contractor then overcharged the state,

As for Mustafa Kemal, he was to tell the English journalist Grace Ellison in 1923: 'I don't like Napoleon at all. He intruded his person into everything. He fought not for a cause, but for himself. That's why he came to a bad end. It's inevitable for such people.'45

Philip had warned the Spartans that if he brought his armies successfully into their territory he would destroy their cities and kill all their people. They replied, rather magnificently, with the single word 'If'.

Em apenas vinte e cinco anos, Gengis Khan conquistou uma área maior da superfície da Terra do que aquela que os Romanos conseguiram em quatro séculos, criando (mesmo que por um período muito reduzido) o maior império terrestre da História.

It is a sequence familiar in the capitals of other great empires: the extreme inequality created as loot from abroad pours in; the corruption of voting systems and of representative institutions; hoarse cries for change from the streets; the undertow of violence; the mailed fist as the army strides in to 'clean things up'. The imbalance of power created by empire, unbalances the empire itself.

Some of the greatest of great men have also been the biggest bastards alive. As

Some of the greatest of great men have also been the biggest bastards

So much one man can do,That does both act and know.

The same arts that did gain A power, must it maintain.

A man who believes that a convincing lie can shape the cosmos in a way he sees fit may not have a problem erasing one or two inconvenient barriers in his path. Obstacles that happen to be sitting in his private jet.

One of his best techniques was buying off the clerks that handled the procedural work for judges. We found numerous examples of major cases that were dismissed or postponed because a clerk lost evidence or changed filings, creating procedural errors.

ongoing blackout.

He's trying to assert his authority by calling me onto the carpet. It's a show of force. It's weak.

Nature controls us more than we want to admit.

a hurricane.

The President?" "No. Somebody with real power.

He's a particular kind of sociopath. The kind that makes a great politician. He makes you think he loves you until you stand in his way. And then when he does something to fuck you over, he makes you think it's your fault." "And you know this from experience?

My curiosity was more powerful than my fear.

Authority." I say the word as if it's a foreign expression I've heard for the very first time. "What about me makes you think that's a word I care for or yield to?