“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”
John Steinbeck book The Short Reign of Pippin IV
The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957), p. 102
“Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts… perhaps the fear of a loss of power.”
John Steinbeck book The Short Reign of Pippin IV
The Short Reign of Pippin IV (1957), p. 102
“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician
Often attributed to Thatcher, but originally said by Jesse Carr, head of Teamsters Union Local, in Newsweek, Vol. 88 (1976), p. 77
Misattributed
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Source: On Coalition Government (1945)
Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician
Interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJHq2aN9tYE by Penny Daniels (1989)
“Great is our God, and great is His power, and his strength is immeasurable”
Carl Linnaeus book Systema Naturae
In the dedication from his 12th edition.
Original in Latin: "Magnus est DEUS noster, & magna est potentia Ejus, & potentia Ejus non est numerus."
Systema Naturae
Suman Pokhrel (1967) Nepali poet, lyricist, playwright, translator and artist
<span class="plainlinks"> Children http://www.occupypoetry.net/children_1/</span> <br class="br">From Poetry
“Behold a God more powerful than I who comes to rule over me.”
Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur mihi.
Dante Alighieri book Vita Nuova
Source: La Vita Nuova (1293), Chapter I (tr. Barbara Reynolds); of love.
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
Written by copywriter Aimee Lehto for a series of Adidas ads in which this was superimposed over stills of various figures, including Muhammad Ali. Documented by Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/11/28/impossible-is/. <br class="br">Misattributed
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister
In den Zeitungen wird gehetzt und geschimpft. Diese verantwortungslosen Schmieranten!
Das Volk ist auf der Straße, randaliert und demonstriert. Die Herren sitzen am grünen Tisch und spielen seelenruhig ihre Partie zu Ende.
Die alte Europa geht in die Binsen.
Ja, es ist eine tolle Welt! Wirtschaft, Horatio!
Man wird wie von einer geheimnisvollen Macht auf die Straße gezogen. Die Gedanken sind draußen, wo sich ein Stück Weltgeschichte abspielt -- kein erhebendes zwar, aber ein Stück. Der ernsthafte Zuschauer hat viel dabei nachzudenken.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
“World-peace can be achieved when the power of love replaces the love of power.”
Sri Chinmoy (1931–2007) Indian writer and guru
Words of Wisdom (2010)
Patañjali (-200–-150 BC) ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises
Translation by: Charles Johnston
Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
“So let love take us through the hours,
I won't be complainin'
'Cause this is love power.”
Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer
Off the Wall (1979)
Peter F. Drucker (1909–2005) American business consultant
Source: 1930s- 1950s, Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World (1959), p. 258
Michael Parenti (1933) American academic
Preface to the Sixth Edition, p. viii
Democracy for the Few (2010 [1974]), sixth edition
“Preserving power, rather than increasing it, is the main goal of states.”
John Mearsheimer book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics
Source: The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001), Chapter 1, Introduction, p. 20
“Symbols are to the mind what tools are to the hand--an extended application of its powers.”
Dion Fortune (1890–1946) British occultist and author
Dion Fortune, The Mystical Qabalah
Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor
Babur writing about the battle against the Rajput Confederacy led by Maharana Sangram Singh of Mewar. In Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 547-572.
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing
Suggestions for Thought : Selections and Commentaries (1994), edited by Michael D. Calabria and Janet A. MacRae, p. 41
Context: Newton's law is nothing but the statistics of gravitation, it has no power whatever.
Let us get rid of the idea of power from law altogether. Call law tabulation of facts, expression of facts, or what you will; anything rather than suppose that it either explains or compels.
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.
It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.
Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it is not my intention to do away with government. It is, rather, to make it work-work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.
“In war, numbers alone confer no advantage. Do not advance relying on sheer military power.”
Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty
Source: The Art of War, Chapter IX · Movement and Development of Troops
Wilhelm Röntgen (1845–1923) German physicist
The New Marvel in Photography (1896)
Context: Having discovered the existence of a new kind of rays, I of course began to investigate what they would do. … It soon appeared from tests that the rays had penetrative power to a degree hitherto unknown. They penetrated paper, wood, and cloth with ease; and the thickness of the substance made no perceptible difference, within reasonable limits. … The rays passed through all the metals tested, with a facility varying, roughly speaking, with the density of the metal. These phenomena I have discussed carefully in my report to the Würzburg society, and you will find all the technical results therein stated.
Karl Marx book The German Ideology
Vol. I, Part 4.
The German Ideology (1845/46)
Context: Communism differs from all previous movements in that it overturns the basis of all earlier relations of production and intercourse, and for the first time consciously treats all natural premises as the creatures of hitherto existing men, strips them of their natural character and subjugates them to the power of the united individuals. Its organisation is, therefore, essentially economic, the material production of the conditions of this unity; it turns existing conditions into conditions of unity. The reality, which communism is creating, is precisely the true basis for rendering it impossible that anything should exist independently of individuals, insofar as reality is only a product of the preceding intercourse of individuals themselves.
Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love
Strength to Love, Chapter 7
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer
Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles" (1992), Ch. 7 : Work, §3 : Personal Power, p. 190 (p. 165 in some editions). This famous passage from her book is very often erroneously attributed to Nelson Mandela. About the mis-attribution Williamson said, "Several years ago, this paragraph from A Return to Love began popping up everywhere, attributed to Nelson Mandela's 1994 inaugural address. As honored as I would be had President Mandela quoted my words, indeed he did not. I have no idea where that story came from, but I am gratified that the paragraph has come to mean so much to so many people."
Variant which appears in the film Coach Carter (2005): "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
Variant which appears in the film Akeelah and the Bee (2006), displayed in a picture frame on the wall, attributing it to Mandela: "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same."
Solomon B Taiwo (1990) English actor and author
Impact interview (2020)
“Truth is powerful and it prevails.”
Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) African-American abolitionist and women's rights activist
Bob Ross (1942–1995) American painter, art instructor, and television host
Source: From "The Joy of Painting" Mobquotes https://mobquotes.com/bob-ross-quotes/
Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician
Source: Discovering Buddhism, 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=226w04QMPzQ
Pavel Durov (1984) Russian entrepreneur
" Why WhatsApp Will Never Be Secure https://telegra.ph/Why-WhatsApp-Will-Never-Be-Secure-05-15" 2019-05-15 <br class="br">In reference to his expatriation from Russia after refusing to breach the privacy of VK users for the government
“The power to question is the basis of all human progress.”
Indíra Gándhí (1917–1984) Indian politician and Prime Minister
Michel Foucault book Discipline and Punish
Discipline and Punish (1977)
Source: Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison
“Nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.”
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Source: State and Revolution
“To judge a man by his weakest link or deed is like judging the power of the ocean by one wave.”
Elvis Presley (1935–1977) American singer and actor
Handwriten message on Elvis' King James -Bible
“Oh, how hard it is to part with power! This one has to understand.”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer
Source: The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956
“Absolute power does not corrupt absolutely, absolute power attracts the corruptible.”
Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer
“The power of imagination makes us infinite.”
John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author
1 September 1875, page 226
John of the Mountains, 1938
Context: How infinitely superior to our physical senses are those of the mind! The spiritual eye sees not only rivers of water but of air. It sees the crystals of the rock in rapid sympathetic motion, giving enthusiastic obedience to the sun's rays, then sinking back to rest in the night. The whole world is in motion to the center. So also sounds. We hear only woodpeckers and squirrels and the rush of turbulent streams. But imagination gives us the sweet music of tiniest insect wings, enables us to hear, all round the world, the vibration of every needle, the waving of every bole and branch, the sound of stars in circulation like particles in the blood. The Sierra canyons are full of avalanche debris — we hear them boom again, for we read past sounds from present conditions. Again we hear the earthquake rock-falls. Imagination is usually regarded as a synonym for the unreal. Yet is true imagination healthful and real, no more likely to mislead than the coarser senses. Indeed, the power of imagination makes us infinite.
Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist
Source: Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: First, we must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. It is impossible even to begin the act of loving one's enemies without prior acceptance of the necessity, over and over again, of forgiving those who inflict evil and injury upon us. It is also necessary to realize that the forgiving act must always be initiated by the person who has been wronged, the victim of some great hurt, the recipient of some tortuous injustice, the absorber of some terrible act of oppression. The wrongdoer may request forgiveness. He may come to himself, and, like the prodigal son, move up with some dusty road, his heart palpitating with the desire for forgiveness. But only the injured neighbor, the loving father back home can really pour out the warm waters of forgiveness.
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977) Indian guru
Source: Krsna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead
“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.”
James Allen book As a Man Thinketh
Source: As a Man Thinketh
“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. book Strength to Love
Strength to Love, Chapter 7
1960s, Strength to Love (1963)
Context: The means by which we live have outdistanced the ends for which we live. Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided man.
“Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”
Robert A. Heinlein Time Enough for Love
Source: Time Enough for Love (1973)
“The powers of the mind are like the rays of the sun when they are concentrated they illumine.”
Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher
Pearls of Wisdom
“There is power and there is power, my dear. My power can be vast, in the right places.”
Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children
Source: Trickster's Queen
“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.”
Roald Dahl (1916–1990) British novelist, short story writer, poet, fighter pilot and screenwriter
“Cut off a wolf's head and it still has the power to bite.”
Hayao Miyazaki (1941) Japanese animator, film director, and mangaka
Source: もののけ姫 [Mononoke hime]
Viktor E. Frankl (1905–1997) Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor
Source: Man's Search For Meaning: The classic tribute to hope from the Holocaust
“Knowledge isn’t power until it is applied.”
Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer
“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Aung San Suu Kyi book Freedom from Fear
Source: Freedom from Fear (1991)
Context: It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moga-gati is aberration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption. Just as chanda-gati, when not the result of sheer avarice, can be caused by fear of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one loves, so fear of being surpassed, humiliated or injured in some way can provide the impetus for ill will. And it would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched.