Quotes About Power

ocean surf beat on relentlessly

He patted the stock of Reel's rifle. "We don't do it with this. We do it by raising dark money to fund policies and candidates that we like. We even help write legislation.

History repeatedly demonstrates that all governments that do not have comprehensive internal safeguards and restraints accounting for the inherent "depravity of man" will eventually become selfish, corrupt, oppressive, and then tyrannical.

It's the exercise of power, not the exercise of freedom, that requires justification.

Those who claim to believe in liberal principals but advocate more and more confiscation of the wealth created by productive people, more and more exceptions to property rights and the rule of law, more and more transfer of power from society to state, are unwittingly engaged in the ultimately deadly undermining of civilization.

Every state and national capitol should have a sign on the door: Stop me before I legislate again.

Only when government begins to hand out rewards on the basis of political pressure do we find ourselves involved in group conflict, pushed to organize and contend with other groups for a piece of political power.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Thus

A Government is not free to do as it pleases…. The law of nature stands as an eternal rule to all men, legislators as well as others.

Til there was Rock You only had God. - Sweet Head

The wrong words make you listen in this criminal world. - Fantastic Voyage

Men can be brilliant and strong, they whispered to one another. But men can be mad, as well. And the mad ones can ruin the world.

Admit that there is some level that would make even you call yourself the victim of class war.

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.

it's obvious to anyone that 5,000 golf buddies in an incestuous CEO caste can much more plausibly connive in secret with parasitic Wall Streeters, casino moguls, Mafiosi, "ex"-KGB agents and inheritance brats. The very folks who want populist rallies pouring hate at both people of color and smart folks.

It's said that 'power corrupts,' but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable

There was a time, in living memory, when this nation bestrode the planet like a titan.

There's a reason why kings built large palaces, sat on thrones and wore rubies all over. There's a whole social need for that, not to oppress the masses, but to impress the masses and make them proud and allow them to feel good about their culture, their government and their ruler so that they are left feeling that a ruler has the right to rule over them, so that they feel good rather than disgusted about being ruled. —George Lucas, New York Times, 1999

The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.

Far worse than bribery is blackmail. Whether a person was originally entrapped in some small misjudgment, or willingly did something awful, the man who is blackmailed is far easier for evil ones to control than someone who is merely greedy or venial.

Let me repeat: I know there are conspiracies! Indeed, it's laughable to ignore the most blatant one called Fox News, which openly works for a mélange of foreign billionaires, from the Saudis to Russian mafiosi, from Macao casino lords to an Australian deceit mogul.

We modern folk snort at the superstitions of our ancestors. We know they could never really wreck the world, but we can! Zeus or Moloch could not match the destructive power of a nuclear missile exchange, or a dusting of plague bacilli, or some ecological travesty, or ruinous mismanagement of the intricate aiconomy. Oh, we're mighty. But are we so different from our forebears?

Nothing is beyond us, the new legends say. So choose well.

there were few worse criminals on any world than the engineer who blithely and knowingly hands over to a tyrant the tools of oppression.