POWER QUOTES II
quotations about power
Even the wise become as the unwise in the enchanted chambers of Power, whose lamps make every face of the same colour.
WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR
Imaginary Conversations
Life is a search after power; and this is an element with which the world is so saturated -- there is no chink or crevice in which it is not lodged -- that no honest seeking goes unrewarded. A man should prize events and possessions as the ore in which this fine mineral is found; and he can well afford to let events and possessions, and the breath of the body go, if their value has been added to him in the shape of power. If he have secured the elixir, he can spare the wide gardens from which it was distilled.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Power", The Conduct of Life
Power proves the man.
PITTACUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
It is a mistake, that a lust for power is the mark of a great mind; for even the weakest have been captivated by it; and for minds of the highest order, it has no charms.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
It's all mirror, mirror on the wall because beauty is power the same way money is power the same way a gun is power.
CHUCK PALAHNIUK
Invisible Monsters
Power should answer by action, not by speech.
AUSTIN O'MALLEY
Keystones of Thought
The greatest sin a man or woman can commit is the abuse of power.
JOE BIDEN
Esquire, January 2012
Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts ... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.
JOHN STEINBECK
The Short Reign of Pippin IV
Power is more firmly secured by treating our equals with justice, than if, elated by present prosperity, we attempt to enlarge it at every risk.
THUCYDIDES
attributed, Day's Collacon
Knowledge is power.
FRANCIS BACON
Meditationes Sacrae
If you are to stay in the good graces of the powerful, you had best, however unobtrusively, please the servants of the powerful.
SAMUEL R. DELANY
Neverÿon
What kind of power was it if it would never be used?
CHINUA ACHEBE
Arrow of God
The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government.
ABIGAIL ADAMS
letter to John Adams, November 27, 1775
Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.
TACITUS
Annales
In all supremacy of power, there is inherent a prerogative to pardon.
BENJAMIN WHICHCOTE
Moral and Religious Aphorisms
I have five questions that I ask people who have power, and I recommend them to the House. If I see someone who is powerful, be it a traffic warden, Rupert Murdoch, the head of a trade union or a Member of Parliament, I ask myself these five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? How can we get rid of you?" That last question is crucial.
TONY BENN
speech in the House of Commons, May 21, 1990
The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.
ORSON SCOTT CARD
Ender's Game
People with power and means would always take advantage of those without them.
DAVID BALDACCI
The Forgotten
The best guarantee against the abuse of power consists in the freedom, the purity, and the frequency of popular elections.
JOHN QUINCY ADAMS
Inaugural Address, March 4, 1825
Men in power have no opinions, but may be had cheap for any opinion, for any purpose -- and if it be only a question between the most civil and the most forcible, I lean to the last.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
"Power", The Conduct of Life