“It was lovely, and tempting, to exert power over men and to shine before others, but power also had its perditions and perils.”
The Glass Bead Game (1943)
Context: It was lovely, and tempting, to exert power over men and to shine before others, but power also had its perditions and perils. History, after all, consisted of an unbroken succession of rulers, leaders, bosses, and commanders who with extremely rare exceptions had all begun well and ended badly. All of them, at least so they said, had striven for power for the sake of the good; afterward they had become obsessed and numbed by power and loved it for its own sake.
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Hermann Hesse 168
German writer 1877–1962Related quotes
Conditions of Progress in Democratic Government (1909).
Context: No greater mistake can be made than to think that our institutions are fixed or may not be changed for the worse. … Increasing prosperity tends to breed indifference and to corrupt moral soundness. Glaring inequalities in condition create discontent and strain the democratic relation. The vicious are the willing, and the ignorant are unconscious instruments of political artifice. Selfishness and demagoguery take advantage of liberty. The selfish hand constantly seeks to control government, and every increase of governmental power, even to meet just needs, furnishes opportunity for abuse and stimulates the effort to bend it to improper uses... The peril of this Nation is not in any foreign foe! We, the people, are its power, its peril, and its hope!
Yanni in Words. Miramax Books. Co-author David Rensin
“This bow I held had killed many men, and it had power, dread power, in its ebony stock.”
ibid
Drenai series, Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf
“Those with power would always find some way to exert it over those who didn’t.”
Source: The Kingdom of Gods (2011), Chapter 19 (p. 494)
“The power you have over someone who loves you is greater than any other power you'll ever have.”
Source: The Summer Garden
1950s, What Desires Are Politically Important? (1950)
Source: Politics Among Nations (1948), p. 27 (1954 edition)
“When we speak of power, we mean man's control over the minds and actions of other men.”
Source: Politics Among Nations (1948), p. 33 (1993 edition).
Context: When we speak of power, we mean man's control over the minds and actions of other men. By political power we refer to the mutual relations of control among the holders of public authority and between the latter and the people at large.