
“All power, as well as all the impotence of democracy is based on faith”
The History of Rome
Source: Seraphita (1835), Ch. 3: Seraphita - Seraphitus.
“All power, as well as all the impotence of democracy is based on faith”
The History of Rome
“Architecture is a dangerous mixture of power and impotence.”
From S,M,L,XL, New York: The Monacelli Press, 1995
The History of Rome - Volume 2
A Summer Evening’s Tale
The Venetian Bracelet (1829)
Speech in the House of Commons, November 12, 1936 "Debate on the Address" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1936/nov/12/debate-on-the-address#column_1107, criticizing Stanley Baldwin's record on rearmament against Hitler.
The 1930s
Context: Anyone can see what the position is. The Government simply cannot make up their mind, or they cannot get the Prime Minister to make up his mind. So they go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent. So we go on preparing more months and years — precious, perhaps vital to the greatness of Britain — for the locusts to eat.
Source: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Book II, ch. 3 (trans. Constance Garnett)
The Elder Zossima, speaking to a devout widow afraid of death
The Brothers Karamazov (1879–1880)
As quoted in Man a revelation of God (1888) by George Everett Ackerman, p. 254.