“Unlimited power is helpless, as arbitrary power is capricious. Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. We can attempt nothing great, but from a sense of the difficulties we have to encounter: we can persevere in nothing great, but from a pride in overcoming them.”

No. 156
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Unlimited power is helpless, as arbitrary power is capricious. Our energy is in proportion to the resistance it meets. …" by William Hazlitt?
William Hazlitt photo
William Hazlitt 186
English writer 1778–1830

Related quotes

“We persist in regarding ourselves as a great power, capable of everything and only temporarily handicapped by economic difficulties. We are not a great power and never will be again. We are a great nation, but if we continue to behave like a great power we shall soon cease to be a great nation.”

Henry Tizard (1885–1959) British chemist

Memo written as Chief Scientific Adviser to the UK Ministry of Defence https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/01/britain-retrenched-island-europe-papers-react-to-brexit-day (1949)

Swami Vivekananda photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Park Chung-hee photo

“But the challenge must be faced squarely. I believe we can overcome it through our own efforts. We must do so. They key is our national power. Take courage from our national pride and traditions, no matter how thorny the road to independence may be.”

Park Chung-hee (1917–1979) Korean Army general and the leader of South Korea from 1961 to 1979

As quoted in Toward Peaceful Unification: Selected Speeches & Interviews https://books.google.com/books?id=nNc2AzJmwPoC&pg=PA3&dq=%22There+was+little,+if+any,+feeling+of+loyalty+toward+the+abstract+concept+of+Korea+as+a+nation-state%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=IOkhVebpAYqWsAWOgILoCQ&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false (1978), Kwangmyong Publishing Company, pp. 47-48.
1970s

Marquis de Sade photo

“Nothing we can do outrages Nature directly. Our acts of destruction give her new vigour and feed her energy, but none of our wreckings can weaken her power.”

Marquis de Sade (1740–1814) French novelist and philosopher

Justine or The Misfortunes of Virtue (1787)

Nikita Khrushchev photo

“When it is a question of fighting against imperialism we can state with conviction that we are all Stalinists. We can take pride that we have taken part in the fight for the advance of our great cause against our enemies. From that point of view I am proud that we are Stalinists.”

Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

Remark made at Kremlin New Year's Eve reception, December 31, 1956. Quoted in Khrushchev by Edward Crankshaw. ISBN 9781448205059

“Unless a potential future incorporates a powerful emotional pull, it will have great difficulty overcoming the gravitational pull of the past.”

Tim Hurson (1946) Creativity theorist, author and speaker

Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking

John of St. Samson photo
Donald J. Trump photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“We can have enough clean energy to power every home.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), First presidential debate (September 26, 2016)

Related topics