Quotes About Power

Knowledge, do you say it is power? yes most mighty of all powers.

No science or art considers or enjoins the interest of the stronger or superior, but only the interest of the subject and weaker

Or do you think it possible for a city not to be destroyed if the verdicts of its courts have no force but are nullified and set at naught by private individuals?

Hé bien, prolonge pour moi la joie du festin, en continuant à répondre. Nous venons de voir que les hommes justes sont meilleurs, plus habiles et plus forts que les hommes injustes ; que ceux-ci ne peuvent rien faire de concert ; et c'était une supposition gratuite que de supposer que des gens injustes aient

And when you see a man who is repining at the approach of death, is not his reluctance a sufficient proof that he is not a lover of wisdom, but a lover of the body, and probably at the same time a lover of either money or power, or both?

So where power is in the hands of a savage and uneducated tyrant, anyone who is greatly his superior will doubtless be an object of fear to the ruler, and never able to be on terms of genuine friendship with him.

The society we have described can never grow into a reality or see the light of day, and there will be no end to the troubles of states, or indeed, my dear Glaucon, of humanity itself, till philosophers become rulers in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands." ? Plato, Plato's Republic

All wars are undertaken for the acquisition of wealth

Men engrossed in the pursuit of money are unfit to rule a state.

In a city composed wholly of good men there would be a great unwillingness to rule

but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power.

Then if the people are willing to yield , well and good; but if not, he will treat the city as the man did the mother and father: he will import new comrades and chastise it if he can; he will keep and maintain his own fatherland and once dear motherland, as the Cretans call it, in slavery under these foreigners. So this will be the final consummation of such a man's desire.

qué Estado puede subsistir, si los fallos dados no tienen ninguna fuerza y son eludidos por los particulares?

The people have always some champion whom they set over them and nurse into greatness... this and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears, he is a protector.

only those who do not seek power are qualified to hold it

SOCRATES: And you would admit once more, my good sir, that great power is a benefit to a man if his actions turn out to his advantage, and that this is the meaning of great power; and if not, then his power is an evil and is no power. But let us look at the matter in another way:—do we not acknowledge that the things of which we were speaking, the infliction of death, and exile, and the deprivation of property are sometimes a good and sometimes not a good?

Y así, Trasímaco --- dije yo-, nadie que tiene gobierno, en cuanto es gobernante, examina ni ordena lo conveniente para sí mismo, sino lo conveniente para el gobernado y sujeto a su arte, y dice cuanto dice y hace todo cuanto hace mirando a éste y a su conveniencia y ventaja.

Costoro sanno che la filosofia, accorgendosi del potere di questa prigione, terribile perché opera attraverso i desideri (e per questo chi è prigioniero è complice della sua stessa prigionia), quelli che amano il sapere sanno che la filosofia, prendendo la loro anima in queste condizioni, dolcemente la esorta e cerca di liberarla.

The right is nothing more than what benefits the powerful.

DoÄŸru olan, yaln?z güçlünün iÅŸine geleni yapmak deÄŸil, tersini de, iÅŸine gelmeyeni yapmakt?r

O halde, her bilgi, kendinden üstün olan?n iÅŸine geleni deÄŸil, kendi yönetimi alt?nda olan?n yani güçsüzün iÅŸine geleni gözetir ve buyurur.

Because of the power and nature of Good, evil is not just evil; since it appeared of necessity, it is bound with certain beautiful chains, like prisoners bound with golden chains, hidden by these, so that, being like this, it is not seen by the gods, and human beings do not always have to look at evil. But whenever they look, they are accompanied by images of Beauty to recollect.

Out here the wild things are healthy, the old trees whose roots find sustenance far below the ill-used layer of topsoil, the occasional rosebush gone to green thicket and thorns, the unstoppable kudzu. It is as if they have decided to take back the land for their own.

for a country is considered the more civilized the more the wisdom and efficiency of its laws hinder a weak man from becoming too weak or a powerful one too powerful.