“On reflection, it is not even clear if military power is a transitive relationship. Until we have defined more explicitly how we are going to measure military power, it is not clear that if A is more powerful than B, and B more powerful than C, that A is more powerful than C.”
Problems of Estimating Military Power, August 1966
Problems of Estimating Military Power (August 1966)
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Andrew Marshall 5
the director of the United States Department of Defense's O… 1921–2019Related quotes
“We should never lose an occasion. Opportunity is more powerful even than conquerors and prophets.”
Tancred, Chapter 46.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Tancred (1847)
“No force is more powerful -- or more multiple -- than the family.”
Source: Father and Child Reunion (2001), p. 246.
The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Thirteen, The Whole- Earth Conspiracy
“Ideas are more powerful than guns.”
Wikinews interview with Tony Benn (8 August 2007), quote from approx 24min45 sec into interview.
2000s
“Patience has more power than force.”
prevale.net
Original: (it) La pazienza ha più potere della forza.
“Patience has more power than force.”
From the Aphorisms http://www.prevale.net/aphorisms.html page of the official website of Prevale
Source: The Postman (1985), Section 3, “Cincinnatus”, Chapter 14 (p. 267)
Variant: It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.
As quoted in Values of the Wise: Humanity's Highest Aspirations (2004) by Jason Merchey, p. 120
This is very similar to the expression by Frank Herbert in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985): "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
Context: It’s said that “power corrupts,” but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. When they do act, they think of it as service, which has limits. The tyrant, though, seeks mastery, for which he is insatiable, implacable.