Power Quotes

"Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace"

George Bernard Shaw, Dramatist

"If a small thing has the power to make you angry, does that not indicate something about your size?"

Sydney J. Harris, Journalist

"The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man"

Euripides, Poet

"I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies"

Napoleon Bonaparte, Leader

"Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me"

Napoleon Bonaparte, Leader

"Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment"

Mahatma Gandhi, Leader

"The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall"

Francis Bacon, Philosopher

"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens"

Epictetus, Philosopher

"The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing"

Epictetus, Philosopher

"Freedom is a man's natural power of doing what he pleases, so far as he is not prevented by force or law"

Cicero, Philosopher

"All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours"

Aldous Huxley, Novelist

"Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting"

Aldous Huxley, Novelist

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that... it is their right and duty to be at all times armed"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful and then only for a short while"

Albert Einstein, Physicist

"That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God"

Albert Einstein, Physicist

"The measure of a man is what he does with power"

Plato, Philosopher

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world"

Abraham Lincoln, President

"New York City is a great monument to the power of money and greed... a race for rent"

Frank Lloyd Wright, Architect

"In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"The one exclusive sign of thorough knowledge is the power of teaching"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"It is just that we should be grateful, not only to those with whose views we may agree, but also to those who have expressed more superficial views; for these also contributed something, by developing before us the powers of thought"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"Anybody can become angry - that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for the right purpose, and in the right way - that is not within everybody's power and is not easy"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"A sense is what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter, in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold"

Aristotle, Philosopher

"All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State"

Albert Camus, Philosopher

"Clairvoyant, n.: A person, commonly a woman, who has the power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron - namely, that he is a blockhead"

Ambrose Bierce, Journalist

"Vote: the instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country"

Ambrose Bierce, Journalist

"Eulogy. Praise of a person who has either the advantages of wealth and power, or the consideration to be dead"

Ambrose Bierce, Journalist

"Beauty, n: the power by which a woman charms a lover and terrifies a husband"

Ambrose Bierce, Journalist

"I repeat... that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist"

Benjamin Disraeli, Statesman

"The health of the people is really the foundation upon which all their happiness and all their powers as a state depend"

Benjamin Disraeli, Statesman

"Real politics are the possession and distribution of power"

Benjamin Disraeli, Statesman

"Power has only one duty - to secure the social welfare of the People"

Benjamin Disraeli, Statesman

"The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination"

Robert Frost, Poet

"Therefore, I feel convinced that any political picture can be changed to suit the needs of the powers that be"

Thor Heyerdahl, Explorer

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