Quotes about power
A collection of quotes on the topic of power, use, people, doing.
Quotes about power
“We are just cogs and nuts of a few stupid people in power.”
Source: La Otra Historia.
Radio show.
Niewolnik marzy o wolności, człowiek wolny o bogactwie, bogacz o władzy, a władca o wolności.
Aphorisms. Magnum in Parvo (2000)
All for Education
Tenczyn - a "Bastille"-type castle of the Tenczyński family, "Aura" 2, 1990-02, p. 19-21. http://yadda.icm.edu.pl/yadda/element/bwmeta1.element.agro-7ab5a4ef-bee9-490b-8838-4917699dfedc?q=d88195b-abee-4385-bd61-43f313e62483$6&qt=IN_PAGE
“WITH GREAT POWER THERE MUST ALSO COME--GREAT RESPONSIBILITY!”
Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962) – The first Spider-Man story.
In later stories and adaptations, including the 2002 movie, this has appeared as "With great power comes great responsibility."
The saying pre-dates Amazing Fantasy. The phrase "with great power goes great responsibility" was spoken by J. Hector Fezandie in an 1894 graduation address at The Stevens Institute of Technology - "The Moral Influence of a Scientific Education", The Stevens Indicator, Volume 11, Page 217. The exact phrase was repeated during a speech by President Harry S. Truman in November 1950 - Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 6666 (published 1965), Page 703. A UK Member of Parliament implied in 1817 that a variant of it was already a cliché ([1817, 1227, Parliamentary Debates, Thomas C. Hansard, http://books.google.co.uk/books?lr=&output=text&as_brr=0&as_drrb_is=b&as_minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=1850&id=B6w9AAAAcAAJ&dq=%22great-power+*+great-responsibility%22&q=%22%22that%2Bthe%2Bpossession%2Bof%2Bgreat%2Bpower%2Bnecessarily%2Bimplies%2Bgreat%2Bresponsibility%22%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DX%26ei%3DYX5WUqnYGaiO4wT9poCwBQ%26ved%3D0CDMQ6wEwAA%23v%3Donepage%26q%3D%22that+the+possession+of+great+power+necessarily+implies+great+responsibility%22%26f%3Dfalse%22#v=onepage&q=%22%22that%2Bthe%2Bpossession%2Bof%2Bgreat%2Bpower%2Bnecessarily%2Bimplies%22&f=false, October 10, 2013, He should, however, beg leave to remind the conductors of the press of their duty to apply to themselves a maxim which they never neglected to urge on the consideration of government—" that the possession of great power necessarily implies great responsibility."] The editor is quoting William Lamb (pp. 1125–1229)). The sentiment is also found in Luke 12:48: "from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked" (NIV).
“Tell the your emperor; Where my power has reached, Emperor's dreams can not reach!”
While Constantinople was besieged, Mehmed's response to the Byzantine ambassador
As quoted in "Rock On Freddie" (1985).
The Cancer Journals, Special Edition, Aunt Lute Books, San Francisco, CA, 1997, p. 13.
“I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail.”
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book VII
“The only thing greater than the power of the mind is the courage of the heart”
Often attributed to Stalin, there is not a single source which show that Stalin said this at any given time. There is only one source outside the blogosphere which attributes the quote to Stalin, but does not provide any evidence for the attribution. That source is the book Quotations for Public Speakers : A Historical, Literary, and Political Anthology (2001), p. 121 by the former US senator Robert Torricelli.
Misattributed
“When the power of love overcomes love of power the world will know peace.”
This quote has been attributed to Hendrix on the internet, and is flatly denied to have ever been said by him, without presenting any evidence as to why, beyond such unsupported, derisive and denigrative statements such as the author rants about others making in "WHAT HENDRIX NEVER SAID : They Don't Want to Know What He Really Said and Demand a Slacker Fantasy Instead" (22 March 2010) by Michael Fairchild, at rockprophecy.com http://www.rockprophecy.com/hendrix_quotes_hoax.html. Whether or not he ever spoke them, they are very similar to those reportedly of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, quoted in The Forbes Book of Business Quotations (1997) edited by Edward C. Goodman and Ted Goodman, p. 639: "We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace." A similar quotation he provides of Sri Chinmoy predates any currently located source of either the Hendrix or Gladstone attributions, yet he accuses Chinmoy of simple plagiarism of Gladstone (or "Gladwell" at one point). From Chinmoy's book My Heart Shall Give A Oneness-Feast (1993) he quotes: "My books, they all have only one message: the heart's Power Of Love must replace the mind's Love Of Power. If I have the Power Of Love, then I shall claim the whole World as my own … World Peace can be achieved when the Power Of Love replaces the Love Of Power." An even earlier statement of Chinmoy is found in Meditations: Food For The Soul (1970): "When the power of love replaces the love of power, man will have a new name: God."
Disputed
Variant: When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.
“Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat.”
Radio broadcast (1936), as quoted in The New Language of Politics: An Anecdotal Dictionary of Catchwords, Slogans, and Political Usage (1968) by William L. Safire, p. 178
Variants:
Guns will make us strong, butter will only make us fat.
We have no butter... but I ask you, would you rather have butter or guns? Preparedness makes us powerful. Butter merely makes us fat.
Speaking of a vision of the "Great Spirit of Peace" in 1942, during World War II, as quoted in Adjusting Though Reflex : Romancing Zen (2010) by Rodger Hyodo, p. 76
Context: The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter — it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.
Source: https://www.wmagazine.com/story/billie-eilish-new-ep/
Attributed to Goethe by popular British novelist Marie Corelli in her essay "The Spirit of Work" as published in The Queen's Christmas carol : an anthology of poems, stories, essays, drawings and music / by British authors, artists and composers in 1905 by The Daily Mail of London.
Attributed to Goethe by William Hutchinson Murray, in his book The Scottish Himalayan Expedition (1951), this has been shown to be a misattribution at "German Myth 12: The Famous 'Goethe' Quotation", Answer.com http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth12.htm and "Popular Quotes: Commitment", Goethe Society of North America http://www.goethesociety.org/pages/quotescom.html
Misattributed
Variant: Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now.
Source: The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Angel (2010), p. 87
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
“Perhaps a man really dies when his brain stops, when he loses the power to take in a new idea.”
Source: Coming Up for Air, Part 3, Ch. 1
“We must leave our mark on life while we have it in our power.”
Variant: If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.
Source: Meditations
“Have faith in creator of this universe believe that he is omnipresent and Supreme power.”
Basavanna's Preachings
Die neuesten Arbeiten des Spartacus und Philo in dem Illuminaten-Orden (1794) pp. 9-10.
Speech to the Reichstag, 30 January 1939, as quoted at The History Place http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/threat.htm.
1930s
Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: city of the world's desire 1453-1924 (1995), p. 84
Poetry
The Satanic Bible (1969)
Handwritten note published in People (12 October 1987)
GoodReads https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/5712889.Sitting_Bull
Attributed quotes
Source: Wuthering Heights
Context: I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death; and flung it back to me. People feel with their hearts, Ellen, and since he has destroyed mine, I have not power to feel for him.
“Where there is power, there is resistance.”
Source: The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction
“Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.”
“The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.”
Variant: The power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely.
“You are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world.”
“There is only one who is all powerful, and his greatest weapon is love.”
“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”
Source: Concerning the Spiritual in Art
Source: Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle
Source: The Master and Margarita
He said ‘play my son’ but I was sweating. I stopped playing.
Khan used to do riyaz (practice) before the temple of Balaji as advised by his mamu (maternal uncle) who had also told him not talk to any body about anything that might happen. But when he told his mamu about his seeing Balaji, mamu was annoyed and slapped him.
Quote, Power Profiles
The Life of Edward Jenner M.D. Vol. 2 (1838) by John Baron, p. 447
“Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent; for they introduce words by the eye, not by the ear.”
Litterae autem sunt indices rerum, signa verborum, quibus tanta vis est, ut nobis dicta absentium sine voce loquantur. Verba enim per oculos non per aures introducunt.
Bk. 1, ch. 3, sect. 1; p. 96.
Etymologiae
strength
Ya, Hindu Online
As quoted in "Entrevista com o médico americano P. Adams" in Roda Viva - Entrevista (13 November 2007)
On Crimes and Punishments (1764)
“If it ever lay in my power, I will work the Cardinal as much displeasure as he has done to me”
About her dislike of Cardinal Wolsey, "Anne Bleyn" http://www.sixwives.info/anne-boleyn.htm, quote under section "Anne Boleyn and Henry Percy", The Tudors
Quoted from [Martha Bush Ashton, Martha Bush Ashton-Sikora, Bruce Christie, Yakṣagāna, a Dance Drama of India, 23, http://books.google.com/books?id=ug3DNI-1xwUC&pg=PA23, 1977, Abhinav Publications, 23–].
“Silence is most powerful. Speech is always less powerful than silence.”
Abide as the Self
To Leon Goldensohn (24 May 1946)
The Nuremberg Interviews (2004)
“Do not hurry over punishments and do not be pleased and do not be proud of your power to punish.”
Nahj al-Balagha, Letter 53: An order to Malik Al-Ashtar
usopen.org http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/interviews/2014-08-30/201408301409438446669.html
“Women in most cultures have been stripped of their spiritual power.”
Interview at Brown's official site http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/faqs.html
Context: Two thousand years ago, we lived in a world of Gods and Goddesses. Today, we live in a world solely of Gods. Women in most cultures have been stripped of their spiritual power.
pg 9.
Science in a Free Society (1978)
Context: A free society is a society in which all traditions have equal rights and equal access to the centers of power. A tradition receives these rights not because the importance the cash value, as it were) it has for outsiders but because it gives meaning to the lives of those who participate in it.
"Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency" (February 1892)
Context: Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason; it has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antaeus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.
Source: Germania (98), Chapter 36
“My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.”
Heathcliff (Ch. XIV).
Source: Wuthering Heights (1847)
Context: I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton's attachment more than mine; if he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have; the sea could be as readily contained in that house-trough as her whole affection be monopolized by him. Tush! He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse. It is not in him to be loved like me; how can she love in him what he has not?
A New Earth (2005)
Variant: Nothing ever happened in the past that can prevent you from being present now, and if the past cant prevent you from being present now, what power does it have?
Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Source: The Essential Groucho: Writings For By And About Groucho Marx
The First Circle (1968)
Source: Двести лет вместе
“Know that the philosopher has power over the stars, and not the stars over him.”
Source: To the Lighthouse
“Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.”
Source: Books, Coningsby (1844), Endymion (1880), Ch. 8.
British Telecom advertisement (1993), part of which was used in Pink Floyd's Keep Talking (1994) and Talkin' Hawkin'<nowiki/> (2014)
Context: For millions of years, mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk and we learned to listen. Speech has allowed the communication of ideas, enabling human beings to work together to build the impossible. Mankind's greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn't have to be like this. Our greatest hopes could become reality in the future. With the technology at our disposal, the possibilities are unbounded. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.
Sec. 2
The Antichrist (1888)
Source: Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court