“Liberal: a power worshipper without power.”

— George Orwell

Last update Sept. 30, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Liberal: a power worshipper without power." by George Orwell?

George Orwell photo

George Orwell473

English author and journalist 1903–1950

Related quotes

“I can very well say without hesitation that all those who have political power, even if they use it well have acquired it by demonic mediation and even if they are not conscious of it, they are worshippers of diabolos.”

Jacques Ellul (1912–1994) French sociologist, technology critic, and Christian anarchist

Si tu es le Fils de Dieu (1991), p. 76

“It accords with the most liberal spirit of philosophy to suppose that not a stone can fall, or a plant rise, without the immediate agency of divine power.”

Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) British political economist

Source: An Essay on The Principle of Population (First Edition 1798, unrevised), Chapter VII, paragraph 10, lines 8-10

“Liberalism was a plant which did not thrive in stagnant waters, and the waters of London, to their shame be it spoken, were stagnant. Where there was a want of active zeal all the worse and baser instincts which had power in politics told against the Liberal party. (Cheers.) The money power was against the Liberal party, and so was the liquor power.”

James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838–1922) British academic, jurist, historian and Liberal politician

Speech to the London Liberal and Radical Union at St. James's-hall (11 January 1887), quoted in The Times (12 February 1887), p. 7.
1880s

“The oppressors, who oppress, exploit, and rape by virtue of their power, cannot find in this power the strength to liberate either the oppressed or themselves.”

Paulo Freire (1921–1997) educator and philosopher

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970), Chapter 1, on the oppressors

“What bothers me about today's "liberals" is this: through the ages, those called liberal fought to take the power away from the kings and the emperors and to give it to the parliaments; now it is the "liberals" who are anxious to give more and more power to the executive, at the expense of the legislative branch.”

Burton K. Wheeler (1882–1975) American politician and lawyer

Yankee from the West (1962), chapter 19, p. 428.

“People with power always take advantage of those without power.”

Christopher Pike book The Last Vampire

Source: The Last Vampire

“Power, true power, comes from within. Not without. (Nick)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Infinity

“Power feminism is just another scam in which women get to play patriarchs and pretend that the power we seek and gain liberates us.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

“Stunning that liberals haven't noticed that Trump and Trumpians are happy to use for their own ends precedents liberals set when in power.”

Robert P. George (1955) American legal scholar

Twitter post https://twitter.com/McCormickProf/status/925122434461831168 (30 December 2017) <br class="br">2017

“Power’s tendency to corrupt is a function of the work it does in liberating man’s worse characteristics.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 25, “Power” (p. 105)

Related topics

Power