Quotes About Power

Where do the strong go to be weak?

I am blessed to live in a democracy, not a totalitarian state. But the democracy I cherish is constantly threatened by a brand of politics that clothes avarice and the arrogance of power in patriotic and religious garb.

I value ethical standards, of course. But in a culture like ours – which devalues or dismisses the reality and power of the inner life – ethics too often becomes an external code of conduct, an objective set of rules we are told to follow, a moral exoskeleton we put on hoping to prop ourselves up. The problem with exoskeletons is simple: we can slip them off as easily as we can don them.

But many educated Americans who rise to positions of responsibility believe they must operate almost exclusively on the basis of what can be observed and measured because they are educated in a system that mistakenly defines reality that way. And yet, everything human is driven by the invisible powers of the heart.

The powers and principalities would hold less sway over our lives if we refused to collaborate with them. But refusal is risky, so we deny our own truth, take up lives of "self-impersonation," and betray our identities.2

Bill Moyers has said, "The antidote, the only antidote, to the power of organized money in Washington is the power of organized people."10

A leader is someone with the power to project either shadow or light onto some part of the world and onto the lives of the people who dwell there. A leader shapes the ethos in which others must live, an ethos as light-filled as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A good leader is intensely aware of the interplay of inner shadow and light, lest the act of leadership do more harm than good.

If the end of tension is what you want, fascism is the thing for you.

The power for authentic leadership, Havel tells us, is found not in external arrangements but in the human heart.

Embedded in the Constitution, says Ellis, is "an ongoing negotiation" in which all resolutions are tentative and no one part of the government holds the power to decide. This "deliberate blurring of sovereignty" is not "a fatal weakness" but "an abiding strength." The genius of the Constitution is that it enshrines "an argumentative process in which no such thing as a last word would ever be uttered."10

heart's darkness or its light, the closer we get to the ultimate mystery of God. But our culture wants to turn mysteries into puzzles to be explained or problems to be solved, because maintaining the illusion that we can "straighten things out" makes us feel powerful. Yet mysteries never yield to solutions or fixes-and when we pretend that they do, life becomes not only more banal but also more hopeless, because the fixes never work.

I believe in democracy—in its indisputable achievements and its unfulfilled promise. I believe in American political institutions—in the genius inherent in their design and in the undeniable good they have done when put to their best use. I believe in the power of the human heart—in its capacity for truth and justice, love and forgiveness.

It is foolish to pretend that the legacies of colonialism can be consistently erased without a trace.

Grate power comes with grate responsibility. so use it wisely.

Europe got over the loss of its colonies much more quickly than the colonies got over their loss of Europe.

De pronto lo antiguo se precipita. Lo antiguo cae de las nubes. Es el rayo mismo. El trueno es la voz de este animal enorme y extremadamente negro que se llama tormenta. Los relámpagos saltan desde lo alto del cielo con el deseo de venir a tocar la tierra.

A cólera é tão exaltante e vertiginosa como a volúpia.

Using your mouth rightly is a vital key that unlocks the blessings of salvation in your life!

Our imagination is the most important faculty we possess. It can be our greatest resource or our most formidable adversary.

Men carve meaning into women's faces; messages addressed to other men.

How do you separate a tiger's beauty from its ferocity? Or a cheetah's elegance from the speed of its attack? Achilles was like that -- the beauty and the terror were two sides of a single coin.

but perhaps no kindness was possible between owner and slave, only varying degrees of brutality?

Well you're a real tough cookie with a long history Of breaking little hearts like the one in me Before I put another notch in my lipstick case You better make sure you put me in my place

With the power of conviction, there is no sacrifice.