Quotes About Power

Faster than all but a few now imagine, microprocessing will subvert and destroy the nation-state, creating new forms of social organization in the process.

Other things being equal, the more widely dispersed key technologies are, the more widely dispersed power will be, and the smaller the optimum scale of government.

The most important causes of change are not to be found in political manifestos or in the pronouncements of dead economists, but in the hidden factors that alter the boundaries where power is exercised. Often, subtle changes in climate, topography, microbes, and technology alter the logic of violence.

Violence is the ultimate boundary force on behavior; this, if you can understand how the logic of violence will change, you can usefully predict where people will be dropping or picking up the equivalent of one-hundred-dollar bills in the future.

Every social system, however strongly or weakly it clings to power, pretends that its rules will never be superseded.

When weapons or tools of production can be effectively hoarded or monopolized, they tend to centralize power.

WICKED is good

When it comes to individual destiny, there is no power greater in the universe then the conviction of the human soul to make a choice.

You've seen what I can do," Thomas replied, trying to sound as dangerous as he felt. "You've watched me in the Maze and the Scorch." He almost wanted to laugh at the irony. They had made him into a killer … to save people?

As we tried to instill in each of our subjects over and over, WICKED is good.

The rain fell in torrents, like God had sucked up the ocean and spit it out over their heads in fury.

The ends justify the means. It should be WICKED's official logo. They should have a giant banner draped across the front entrance.

A knife is a godsend to the man tied in ropes, death to the man in chains.

We are evil. They are kids. We are evil. We should stop, let the Munies have the world. We are evil. We can't play God. We can't do this to kids.

CRUEL es bueno. CRUEL es bueno...

Well, it's easy to be tough when you have a bunch of lunatics with knives protecting you,

it was impossible to get into—unless you were extremely rich, famous, or high up on the criminal chain. Or, of course, a politician, which would make you all of the above.

People still believe what the SQ tells them to believe. Because fear is always more powerful than truth.

Grab his butt and drag him in!

And then Thomas, still in shock over the sheer power of the lightning bursts, followed his friends, stepping into the gloom. He turned to look just in time to see the rain start falling outside, as if the storm had finally decided to weep with shame for what it had done to them.

Minho laughed, then raised the palm of his hand and shoved Gally in the face. Thomas half stood as he watched the Glader crash down into his chair, tipping it over backward, cracking it in two pieces. Gally sprawled across the floor, then scrambled to stand up, struggling to get his hands and feet under him. Minho stepped closer and stomped the bottom of his foot down on Gally's back, driving his body flat to the ground.

idealism misconstrues agency, implying the capacity to bring about influence where that capacity may not exist or where it may only be weak.

culture is not neutral in relation to power but a form of power.

The cultural capital American Christianity has amassed simply cannot be leveraged where it matters most.