Quotes About Power

I think it came from being a ruling class, from never being able to show weakness to the people they have conquered - to people like us. It gave them a sense of unyielding authority.

Race and class divisions, power imbalances, anti-intellectualism, anti-democratic leanings, and widespread poverty—not to mention Ponzi schemes—once we saw them as glitches in a country built on high ideals. The Great Man showed us otherwise. The flaws we had called incidental were underpinnings. They comprised a grand tradition, present always.

He could leave the land in ruins and remain beloved. He had made history. He was the end of history.

The Crimson King speaks. As a direct result, somewhere a slumbering, dreaming infant shudders in its sleep, and dies.

Right, wrong—those are words thrown around by those what is in power in order to sit on the backs of those what ain't.

It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us,

Suppliers and especially manufacturers have market power because they have information about a product or a service that the customer does not and cannot have, and does not need if he can trust the brand. This explains the profitability of brands.

Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.

The real reason that language so often carries magic is because humans have trouble not ascribing special power to it. Language makes so many things happen. If we say or write words in a certain way, we can make people see things that aren't there and feel things they have no reason to feel—all this with mere mouth sounds or paper marks.

The real reason that language so often carries magic is because humans have trouble not ascribing special power to it.

As Luke's story unfolds, Jesus continues to undermine expectations involving political power and Jewish identity. In his first public appearance, in a synagogue service, he claims to be the messiah, which creates quite a buzz of support—until he tells them that he will bless Gentiles and be rejected by his own kinsmen. The crowd responds by trying to throw Jesus off a cliff. Israel's messiah isn't supposed to say things like this.

A faith that eats its own not only drives people out but also sends up a red flare to the rest of humanity that Christianity is just another exclusive members-only club, and that Jesus is a lingering relic of antiquity, rather than a powerful, present-defining spiritual reality; a means of gaining power rather than relinquishing it. And who needs that, really?

Today knowledge has power. It controls access to opportunity and advancement.

The three most charismatic leaders in this century inflicted more suffering on the human race than almost any trio in history: Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. What matters is not the leader's charisma. What matters is the leader's mission.

Violence: the brutish solution of the ignorant who know they could never get enough people to vote for them.

Let's see how long the rich can eat their money for

We're on Earth, now, remember. You can do anything you want here as long as you've got money.

The universe was not built on integrity. In the face of weakness, force can and will triumph. All you can do is choose who wields that force. Us or the Starflyer.

Typical case, educated way, way beyond her IQ, with ambition stronger than ability. She's just another cause fascist, son, and that's the worst kind; they always know they're right. Anyone who dissents for whatever reason is evil and an enemy, existing only to be crushed.

Start taking money away from the privileged, and they can turn just as savage as any animal that gets shoved into Philippa's arena.

Three hundred and twenty-eight wormholes were opened in unison. They were small, all of them measuring a metre and a half wide. Just enough for a ten-megatonne warhead to pass through. The wormholes closed.

Most people who have failed miserably in life itself have one last resort left available to them. They become politicians.

So government did what government always does when confronted with an opposition which can't be brought down by fair and legal means. It cheated.

Don't worry. The chaps train for civil disobedience suppression. We'll crack a few heads, chuck some of the would-be revolutionaries in jail, and the rest will slink off back to their hovels and drink themselves stupid all night. And if worse comes to worst, well, we've got all the guns, haven't we?