Quotes About Power

If the baron is a masochist himself, then why would he attract another masochist? I suppose he wants someone cute to attract other sadists.

more and more ferocious to devour the South.

her husband a grown man, afraid to sleep alone in his own house, he who for many a year struck terror into her and Eleanora.

Two or three people had gone to Limerick and bought 'The Country Girls.' The parish priest asked them to hand in the books, which they did, and he burnt them on the grounds of the church.

Everything hinged on money

History is past politics and politics present history.

You know how to spell that? G-U-Z-M-A-N. Don't you go spelling my name wrong, or I'll have to mess you up.

I was constantly amazed by how many people talked me into arresting them.

The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

Augustus was sensible that mankind is governed by names; nor was he deceived in his expectation, that the senate and the people would submit to slavery, provided they were respectfully assured that they still enjoyed their ancient freedoms.

Under a democratical government, the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude.

The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved peace by a constant preparation for war;

religious controversy is the offspring of arrogance and folly; that true piety is most laudably expressed by silence and submission; that man, ignorant of his own nature, should not presume to scrutinize the nature of his God; and that it is sufficient for us to know, that power and benevolence are the perfect attributes of the Deity.

unchecked power corrupts.  

The generality of princes, if they were stripped of their purple, and cast naked into the world, would immediately sink to the lowest rank of society, without a hope of emerging from their obscurity.

Once the monarchy was abolished, a decree was passed that there would be no more kings in Rome.

The image of a free constitution was preserved with decent reverence: the Roman senate appeared to possess the sovereign authority, and devolved on the emperors all the executive powers of government. 

In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind.

so intimate is the connexion between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people.

The Empire In The Age Of The Antoninies.

In the second century of the Christian Æra, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth

Though it was every moment in their power to repeal the disgraceful edict of Gallienus, the proud successors of the Scipios patiently acquiesced in their exclusion from all military employments. They soon experienced, that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.

Carus, taking off a cap which he wore to conceal his baldness, assured the ambassadors, that, unless their master acknowledged the superiority of Rome, he would speedily render Persia as naked of trees as his own head was destitute of hair.

He there experienced that the most absolute power is a weak defence against the effects of despair.