“The truth about the nature and the power of the elite is not some secret which men of affairs know but will not tell. … No matter how great their actual power, they tend to be less acutely aware of it than of the resistance of others to its use.”

—  C. Wright Mills , book The Power Elite

Source: The Power Elite (1956), p. 4.

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 "The truth about the nature and the power of the elite is not some secret which men of affairs know but will not tell. ……" by C. Wright Mills?
C. Wright Mills photo
C. Wright Mills 55
American sociologist 1916–1962

Related quotes

Clive Staples Lewis photo

“What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.”

Clive Staples Lewis book The Abolition of Man

The Abolition of Man (1943)

Robert F. Kennedy photo

“The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use — of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public.”

Robert F. Kennedy book The Pursuit of Justice

"I Remember, I Believe," The Pursuit of Justice (1964)

Vilfredo Pareto photo

“The diverse natures of men, combined with the necessity to satisfy in some manner the sentiment which desires them to be equal, has had the result that in the democracies they have endeavored to provide the appearance of power in the people and the reality of power in an elite.”

Vilfredo Pareto book Manual of Political Economy

page 97.
Manual of Political Economy

Lynn Compton photo

“Secrets have power over us. Only when secrets are revealed can truth be known and freedom brought about.”

Lynn Compton (1921–2012) Easy Company soldier turned noted jurist

Source: Call of Duty: My Life Before, During and After the Band of Brothers (2008), p. 107

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“I assess the power of a will by how much resistance, pain, torture it endures and knows how to turn to its advantage”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

“A picture is a secret about a secret, the more it tells you the less you know.”

Diane Arbus (1923–1971) American photographer and author

Source: Estrin, James, Diane Arbus, 1923-1971, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-diane-arbus.html, 6 November 2018, The New York Times, 8 March 2018]


Diane Arbus: Revelations. New York: Random House, 2003. ISBN 0-375-50620-9.


Ault, Alicia, A Window into the World of Diane Arbus: Photographs from the portfolio, "A box of 10," reveal photographer's secrets, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/window-world-diane-arbus-180968861/, 13 November 2018, Smithsonian, 24 April 2018

David Graeber photo

““Policy” is the negation of politics; policy is by definition something concocted by some form of elite, which presumes it knows better than others how their affairs are to be conducted. By participating in policy debates the very best one can achieve is to limit the damage, since the very premise is inimical to the idea of people managing their own affairs.”

David Graeber (1961) American anthropologist and anarchist

Source: Fragments for an Anarchist Anthropology (2004), p. 9

“The wielders of power did not speak for it, nor did they naturally serve it. Their interest was to use and develop power, no less natural and necessary than liberty but more dangerous.”

Bernard Bailyn book The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution

Source: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution (1967), Chapter III, POWER AND LIBERTY A THEORY OF POLITICS, p. 59.

Isaac Asimov photo

“No matter how the conomy and sociology of the neighbouring sectors of the Galaxy changes, there was always an elite; and it is always the characteristic of an elite that it possesses leisure as the great reward of its elite-hood.”

Isaac Asimov book Second Foundation

Source: The Foundation series (1951–1993), Second Foundation (1953), Chapter 12 "Lord"

Winston S. Churchill photo

“I submit respectfully to the House as a general principle that our responsibility in this matter is directly proportionate to our power. Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

In the House of Commons, February 28, 1906 speech South African native races http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1906/feb/28/south-african-native-races#S4V0152P0_19060228_HOC_307
Early career years (1898–1929)

Related topics