Themes

"Ich fühle eine Armee in meiner Faust."

"The powers that be are ordained of God."

"Quod non potest vult posse, qui nimium potest."

"Nunquam est fidelis cum potente societas."

"Unlimited power corrupts the possessor."

"Minimum decet libere cui multum licet."

"And deal damnation round the land."

"Ut desint vires tamen est laudanda voluntas."

"I have seen that Man moves over with each new generation into a bigger body, more awful, more reverent and more free than he has had before."

":: Corollary 2B: Particularly quotable figures receive more than their share of quotable quotes."

"Change based on principle is progress. Constant change without principle becomes chaos."

"A cane non magno sæpe tenetur aper."

"No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, But the whole boundless continent is yours."

"It is not possible to enter into the nature of the Good by standing aloof from it — by merely speculating upon it. Act the Good, and you will believe in it. Throw yourself into the stream of the world's good tendency and you will feel the force of the current and the direction in which it is setting. The conviction that the world is moving toward great ends of progress will come surely to him who is himself engaged in the work of progress."

"Iron hand in a velvet glove."

"To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary."

"Odin, thou whirlwind, what a threat is this Thou threatenest what transcends thy might, even thine, For of all powers the mightiest far art thou, Lord over men on earth, and Gods in Heaven; Yet even from thee thyself hath been withheld One thing — to undo what thou thyself hast ruled."

"Qui peut ce qui lui plaît, commande alors qu'il prie."

"Every Communist must grasp the truth: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.""

"Michael Corleone: My father's no different than any other powerful man – any man who's responsible for other people, like a senator or a president."

"So mightiest powers by deepest calms are fed, And sleep, how oft, in things that gentlest be!"

"Give me a lever long enough And a prop strong enough, I can single handed move the world."

"Power is habit-forming. We grew addicted to it. Few things survive the centuries’ slow decay: senses grow dull; passions grow weak; and ideals die. Only the taste for power lives on as an excuse for survival."

"Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation."

"People with real power never fear of losing it. People with control think of little else."

"Better were the prospects of a people under the influence of the worst government who should hold the power of changing it, than those of a people under the best who should hold no such power."

"An untoward event. (Threatening to disturb the balance of power.)"

"Power never takes a back step — only in the face of more power."

"For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?"

"My cool judgement is, that if all the other doctrines of devils which have been committed to writing since letters were in the world were collected together in one volume, it would fall short of this; and that, should a Prince form himself by this book, so calmly recommending hypocrisy, treachery, lying, robbery, oppression, adultery, whoredom, and murder of all kinds, Domitian or Nero would be an angel of light compared to that man."

"That, decided Elric, was the root of decadence—when power is enjoyed solely for its own sake."

"I promise you, there are people in America whose only problem with the Taliban is that they did it for the wrong god. Whether it's incest, rape, terrorism or Nazism, it's all the same thing—accumulating and abusing power."

"Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo."

"All powers have two sides, the power to create and the power to destroy. We must recognize them both, but invest our gifts on the side of creation."

"There is a remedy against the domination imposed, not by generals, statesmen, and men of action, whose power dissolves when they retire, but by the great sort-crossers, whose power increases when they die- the remedy of becoming aware of metaphor..."

"Remember, I have not appointed you as commanders and tyrants over the people. I have sent you as leaders instead, so that the people may follow your example. Give the Muslims their rights and do not beat them lest they become abused. Do not praise them unduly, lest they fall into the error of conceit. Do not keep your doors shut in their faces, lest the more powerful of them eat up the weaker ones. And do not behave as if you were superior to them, for that is tyranny over them."

"Every institution which grapples with the problem of molding recalcitrant material into a fairer shape—and nothing is more recalcitrant than the passions and interests of men—runs the risk of being defeated by its material. And since the institution which proposes the ideal is itself served by fallible human beings, the danger is not only that the experiment may fail but that the artists themselves, wrestling with such insidious substances as power, responsibility, and material goods, may themselves be caught by these powerful instincts, may appropriate to themselves the power they sought to tame or the riches they had hoped to divert to a nobler cause."

"Power consists in making oneself the goal of another person's social instincts, without seeking to satisfy one's own social instincts through him. The other then does everything one asks. Powerlessness consists in wanting or having to satisfy one's social instincts through another person whose social instincts one has not succeeded in concentrating on oneself — one then does everything the other asks."

"All power corrupts, absolute power is even more fun."

"My story Lord of the Rings is not an allegory of Atomic power, but of Power (exerted for Domination). Nuclear physics can be used for that purpose. But they need not be. They need not be used at all. If there is any contemporary reference in my story at all it is to what seems to me the most widespread assumption of our time: that if a thing can be done, it must be done. This seems to me wholly false."

"The public, therefore, among a democratic people, has a singular power, which aristocratic nations cannot conceive; for it does not persuade others to its beliefs, but it imposes them and makes them permeate the thinking of everyone by a sort of enormous pressure of the mind of all upon the individual intelligence. In the United States the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own. Everybody there adopts great numbers of theories, on philosophy, morals, and politics, without inquiry, upon public trust; and if we examine it very closely, it will be perceived that religion itself holds sway there much less as a doctrine of revelation than as a commonly received opinion."

"Real power is--I don't even want to use the word--fear."

"Though he hadn't wanted to attend NYMA, certain things made sense for Donald there, just as ROTC had for Freddy. There was structure, and there were consequences to his actions. There was a logical system of punishment and reward. At the same time, though, life at NYMA reinforced one of Fred's lessons: the person with the power (no matter how arbitrarily that power was conferred or attained) got to decide what was right and wrong. Anything that helped you maintain power was by definition right, even if it wasn't always fair. NYMA also reinforced Donald's aversion to vulnerability, which is essential for tapping into love and creativity because it can also expose us to shame, something he could not tolerate. By necessity he had to improve his impulse control, not only to avoid punishment but to help him get away with transgressions that required a little more finesse."

"Man is constantly being assured that he has more power than ever before in history, but his daily experience is one of powerlessness. … If he is with a business organization, the odds are great that he has sacrificed every other kind of independence in return for that dubious one known as financial."

"Du bist noch nicht der Mann den Teufel festzuhalten."

"I have found that power does not corrupt. People who seek power are already corrupted."

"Imperium flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis artibus exercuit."

"Imperium cupientibus nihil medium inter summa et præcipitia."

"Suspectum semper invisumque dominantibus qui proximus destinaretur."

"Potentiam cautis quam acribus consiliis tutius haberi."