Quotes About Power

Having navigated himself into unchallenged authority, he used it to turn a failing republic—as if it were a Virgilian vine—into an empire that flourishes

El poder, no obstante, abre la puerta a cometer grandes idioteces.[36]

If only Americans "could have their toys taken away from them, be spanked, educated and made to grow up, it might be worthwhile to act as a guardian for their foreign interests in the meantime. But when one can do none of these things?" So

NON SUFFICIT ORBIS," a medal struck for Philip proclaimed in 1583, after he'd taken over Portugal and its overseas colonies: "The World Is Not Enough.

Lenin had no such qualms: The masses were too stupid and too blind to be allowed to proceed in the direction of their own choosing. . . . [T]hey could only be saved by being ruthlessly ordered by leaders who had acquired a capacity for knowing how to organize the liberated slaves into a rational planned system.

He insisted on flying to Washington in a new and untested airplane so that its size would intimidate his hosts.

Revolt is the right of the people

The great question which, in all ages, has disturbed mankind, and brought on them the greatest part of their mischiefs ... has been, not whether be power in the world, nor whence it came, but who should have it.

Any kind of history you read is basically the winning side telling you the others were bad.

The nest of college-birds are three, / Law, Physic and Divinity; / And while these three remain combined, / They keep the world oppressed and blind / . . . Now is the time to be set free, / From priests' and Doctors' slavery.

He was saying that mixing church and state corrupted the church. He was saying that when one mixes religion and politics one gets politics.

The force of an idea lies in its inspirational value. It matters very little if it is true or false.

Despite that effort, whoever held power, whether a city government or some private gathering of the locals, they generally failed to keep the community together. They failed because they lost trust. They lost trust because they lied. (San Francisco was a rare exception; its leaders told the truth, and the city responded heroically.) And they lied for the war effort, for the propaganda machine that Wilson had created.

I am Public Opinion. All men fear me!

the temperature at which various kinds of bacteria died and the power of different disinfectants to kill them. That information allowed the creation of antiseptic conditions in both laboratory and public health work.

Those in power, historians have observed, often sought security in imposing order, which gave them some feeling of control, some feeling that the world still made sense.

hubris syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by recklessness, an inattention to detail, overwhelming self-confidence and contempt for others; all of which, he observes, "can result in disastrous leadership and cause damage on a large scale." The syndrome, he continues, "is a disorder of the possession of power, particularly power which has been associated with overwhelming success, held for a period of years and with minimal constraint on the leader.

Both as a young man and more recently, he first figuratively and then literally set out to "play God," initially by making the claim that humans had the power of gods and then during the past decade by creating an organization to save and restore endangered species with modern biotechnology.

Goals may give focus, but dreams give power.

Over no nation does the press hold a more absolute control than over the people of America, for the universal education of the poorest classes makes every individual a reader.

Law without education is a dead letter. With education the needed law follows without effort and, of course, with power to execute itself; indeed, it seems to execute itself.

The truth is mightier than eloquence, the Spirit greater than genius, faith more than education.

The opening of the first grammar school was the opening of the first trench against monopoly in Church and State.

The civilised cultures are the most cruel. It's the same with education - often it breeds sadistic forms of cruelty.