Quotes about power
page 21

“The happy and powerful do not go into exile, and there are no surer guarantees of equality among men than poverty and misfortune.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America

Men, Happiness

“A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.”

George Meredith book Diana of the Crossways

Ch. 1 http://books.google.com/books?id=pDlxjZ-z-woC&q=%22A+witty+woman+is+a+treasure+a+witty+beauty+is+a+power%22&pg=PA2#v=onepage. Source: Diana of the Crossways http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4470/4470.txt (1885)

Motivational, Beauty, For women, Success

“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist

Often attributed to Hugo as a paraphrase of a similar idea in his Histore d'un Crime (1877): "One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas", the wording of this famous statement actually more closely resembles a passage from the relatively obscure Les Francs-Tireurs (1861) by Gustave Aimard, p. 68 https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_francs_tireurs.html?id=mKI4AQAAIAAJ: Il y a quelque chose de plus puissant que la force brutale des baïonnettes: c'est l'idée dont le temps est venu et l'heure est sonnée. There is something more powerful than the brute force of bayonets: it is the idea whose time has come and hour struck. Translated into English as The Freebooters : A Story of the Texan War (1861) https://archive.org/details/freebootersstory00aima, p. 57, Ward & Lock edition Misattributed Variant: More powerful than the mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.

Idea, Time

“It is always from the depths of its impotence that each power center draws its power, hence their extreme maliciousness, and vanity”

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Source: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

Drawing

“I had hurt her feelings, I found out later; I didn’t know I had that power.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Feeling, Hurt

“Truth is a constant delight to those that love her; such beauty holds no power to offend.”

Stephen R. Lawhead (1950) American writer

Love, Truth, Beauty

“And hope is like love… a ridiculous, wonderful, powerful thing.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux (2004)

Love, Hope

“Never work just for money or for power. They won't save your soul or help you sleep at night.”

Marian Wright Edelman (1939) American children's rights activist

Money, Soul, Sleep, Help

“That’s what you taught me - we don’t have to accept destiny or Des Tiny. We can create our own future, all of us. We have the power to rule our lives - we just have to make the choice to use it.”

Darren Shan book Sons of Destiny

Source: Sons of Destiny

Future

“I had rather be shut up in a very modest cottage with my books, my family and a few old friends, dining on simple bacon, and letting the world roll on as it liked, than to occupy the most splendid post, which any human power can give.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Alexander Donald (7 February 1788)
1780s
Source: Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Books, World, Family

“If America could be, once again, a nation of self-reliant farmers, craftsmen, hunters, ranchers, and artists, then the rich would have little power to dominate others. Neither to serve nor to rule: That was the American dream.”

Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist

Dreams

“It is proved by surveys that happiness does not come from love, wealth, or power but the pursuit of attainable goals.”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

Love, Wealth, Happiness

“We are all born with extraordinary powers of imagination, intelligence, feeling, intuition, spirituality, and of physical and sensory awareness. (p.9)”

Ken Robinson (1950) UK writer

Source: The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything

Feeling, Imagination, Intelligence

“Demonic activity levels? Do they have a device that measures whether the demons inside the house are doing power yoga?”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Simon to Clary, pg. 340
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Bones (2007)

Housing

“The incorporation of a bank and the powers assumed [by legislation doing so] have not, in my opinion, been delegated to the United States by the Constitution. They are not among the powers specially enumerated.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Opinion on the Constitutionality of the Bill for Establishing a National Bank., 1791. http://www.yamaguchy.netfirms.com/7897401/jefferson/natbank.html ME 3:146 Posthumous publications, On financial matters

“Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.”

Karen Joy Fowler (1950) American novelist, short story writer, editor

“A prayer couched in the words of the soul, is far more powerful than any ritual.”

Paulo Coelho book Brida

Source: Brida

Soul

“Change
is the one unavoidable,
irresistible,
ongoing reality of the universe.
To us,
that makes it the most powerful reality,
and just another word for
God.

Earthseed: The Books of the Living
Lauren Oya Olamina”

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) American science fiction writer

God, Books, Reality, Universe

“And for the first time in my life, I saw something new reflected in the eyes that saw me. Respect. It taught me a very valuable lesson. That dreams have power only over your own mind. But with money you can have power over the minds of others”

Vikas Swarup (1961) Indian novelist and diplomat

Source: Q A: Slumdog Millionaire

Life, Money, Dreams, Time

“A friend in power is a friend lost.”

Henry Adams book The Education of Henry Adams

Source: The Education of Henry Adams

“The will to be stupid is a very powerful force.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Brothers in Arms

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Brothers in Arms (1989)

Stupidity

“You hold in your hand an invitation: to remember the transforming power of forgiveness and loving kindness. To remember that no matter where you are and what you face, within your heart peace is possible.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Love, Peace, Forgiveness, Heart

“The heart itself is beyond control. That is its power, and its weakness.”

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (1956) novelist, short story writer, poet, and essayist

Source: The Palace of Illusions

Heart

“Rules of taste enforce structures of power.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“Finally the vampire released him with another groan, sitting back on his haunches. "Your blood isin power." Running his tongue over a fang, he said, "Among other things. I believe I might be high. But Iit.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Dreams of a Dark Warrior

“She was without any power, because she was without any desire of command over herself.”

Jane Austen book Sense and Sensibility

Source: Sense and Sensibility

“I can see now that it’s the little things, the small efforts, that keep a relationship going. And I know now too that in some small measure I have the power to hurt him and also the power to make it better.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Effort, Hurt

“The love in his eyes was so powerful, I needed to look away. Seth had an amazing grasp of the English language, but there were days when that skill was nothing compared to what he told me in his looks.”

Richelle Mead (1976) American writer

Source: Succubus Dreams

Love

“Vote, v. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

The Devil's Dictionary (1911)

Fools, Country

“We were not a hugging people. In terms of emotional comfort it was our belief that no amount of physical contact could match the healing powers of a well made cocktail.”

David Sedaris Naked

Source: Naked

People

“By instructing students how to learn, unlearn and relearn, a powerful new dimension can be added to education.”

Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) American writer

Future Shock (1970), ch. 18
Source: Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Power at the Edge of the 21st Century

Education, Learning

“I allowed myself to forget how totally I had fallen in love with Lestat's iridescent eyes, that I'd sold my soul for a many-colored and luminescent thing, thinking that a highly reflective surface conveyed the power to walk on water.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Love, Color, Soul, Thinking

“But certain souls cohere. It's rare but possible. But it takes two powerful wills to make it so.”

Ann Brashares book My Name is Memory

Source: My Name Is Memory

Soul

“In me is working a power stronger than every other power. The life that is in me is a thousand times bigger than I am outside.”

Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) British evangelist

Life, Time

“Whenever you have a sorcerer betwixt your thighs, your powers tend to disappear”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Kiss of a Demon King

“Is it possible to specialize in more than one element?"
She laughed and shook her head. "No. Too much power. No one could handle all that magic, not without losing her mind."
Oh. Great.”

Richelle Mead Vampire Academy

Source: Vampire Academy

“Whether a thought is spoken or not it is a real thing and it has power," Tuek said. "You might find the line between life and death among the Fremen to be too sharp and quick.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Life, Death

“The doctor says there are such boys springing up amongst us—boys of a sort unknown in the last generation—the outcome of new views of life. They seem to see all its terrors before they are old enough to have staying power to resist them. He says it is the beginning of the coming universal wish not to live.”

Thomas Hardy book Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure

Life, Spring, Boy, Universe

“That deep emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

God, Idea, Universe

“How does fear become so powerful? We can’t see it. We can’t touch it, yet it gets its claws in us and begins to control us. Sigh. I hate feeling afraid, and I hate, hate, HATE feeling out of control.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Oh My Goth

Hate, Fear, Feeling

“the past only had whatever power you gave it; life was what you made it and if you wanted something different from what you had, it was up to you to make it happen.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

Source: Sweethearts

Life, Past

“This is peculiarly an age in which each of us may, if he do but search diligently, find the literature suited to his mental powers.”

P.G. Wodehouse book Something New

Source: Something New

Age, Search, Literature

“Never underestimate the power of a brillian stylist.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Source: Mockingjay

“Your past is just a story. And once you realize this it has no power over you.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Variant: Your past is just a story. And once you realise this, it has no power over you.
Source: Invisible Monsters

Attitude, Past

“If people don't think they have the power to solve their problems, they won't even think about how to solve them.”

Saul D. Alinsky (1909–1972) American community organizer and writer

Source: Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

People, Problem, Thinking

“Women’s liberation has often been portrayed as a movement intent on encroaching upon or taking power and privilege away from men, as though in some dismal zero-sum game, only one gender at a time could be free and powerful.”

Rebecca Solnit book Men Explain Things To Me

Source: Men Explain Things to Me

Women, Men, Game, Time

“The release of atomic power has changed everything except our way of thinking… the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker. (1945)”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Way, Problem, Thinking, Change

“The room was very quiet. I walked over to the TV set and turned it on to a dead channel-white noise at maximum decibels, a fine sound for sleeping, a powerful continuous hiss to drown out everything strange.”

Hunter S. Thompson book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Source: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Sleep, Dead

“… some people aren't worth the trouble of being kind to, because they have neither the brains nor the power to make something for themselves out of your kindness.”

Rob Sheffield (1966) American music journalist

Source: Love Is a Mix Tape

People

“the difference between a rebel and a patriot depends upon who is in power at the moment.”

Sidney Sheldon book The Sands of Time

Source: The Sands of Time

Dependency

“Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song.”

Naomi Novik book Uprooted

Source: Uprooted

Singing

“Those in power must spend a lot of their time laughing at us.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Time

“Borges said there are only four stories to tell: a love story between two people, a love story between three people, the struggle for power and the voyage. All of us writers rewrite these same stories ad infinitum.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Love, People

“A woman half dressed seemed to have some power, but a man was simply not as handsome as when he was naked, and not as secure as when he was clothed.”

John Irving book The World According to Garp

Source: The World According to Garp

Clothes

“Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all;”

Philip Pullman book Northern Lights

Source: His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass (1995), Ch. 15 : The Dæmon Cages
Context: Being a practiced liar doesn't mean you have a powerful imagination. Many good liars have no imagination at all; it's that which gives their lies such wide-eyed conviction.

Imagination

“To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes the wise and good learn wisdom for the future.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Wisdom, Error, Learning, Future

“To be happy you must have taken the measure of your powers, tasted the fruits of your passion, and learned your place in the world.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

World, Learning, Passion, Happiness

“Power revealed is power sacrificed. The truly powerful exert their influence in ways unseen, unfelt. Some would say that a thing visible is a thing vulnerable.”

Guillermo del Toro book The Fall

Source: The Fall

Way

“I can't go back because I lost all my Soul Reaper powers! - Rukia
You lost your powers? What are they, socks? - Ichigo”

Tite Kubo (1977) Japanese manga artist

Source: Bleach, Volume 01

Soul

“Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Death

“Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Deep, Attitude, Happiness

“I want a magical horse that fits in my pocket," Wil said. "And a ring of red amber that gives me power over demons. And an endless supply of cake.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Horse

“Frank Zhang! I, Jason Grace, praetor of the Twelfth Legion Fulminata, give you my final order: I resign my post and give you emergency field promotion to praetor, with the full powers of that rank. Take command of this legion!”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

“Great is the power of steady misrepresentation; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.”

Charles Darwin book On the Origin of Species (1859)

Source: On the Origin of Species (1859), chapter XV: "Recapitulation and Conclusion", page 421 http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=449&itemID=F391&viewtype=image, in the sixth (1872) edition

History, Science

“Power is an illusion of perception.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

“Knowledge is power.”

Thomas Hobbes book Leviathan

This is the sentence that dug the grave of philosophy in the nineteenth century. … This sentence brings to an end the tradition of a knowledge that, as its name indicates, was an erotic theory—the love of truth and the truth through love (Liebeswahrheit). … Those who utter the sentence reveal the truth. However, with the utterance they want to achieve more than truth: They want to intervene in the game of power.
Source: Kritik der zynischen Vernunft [Critique of Cynical Reason] (1983), p. xxvii
Source: Leviathan

Knowledge

“The transformative power of love is not fully embraced in our society because we often wrongly believe that torment and anguish are our ‘natural’ condition.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Love, Nature

“Power knows power.”

Gloria Naylor book Bailey's Cafe

Bailey's Cafe

“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“The power of thought is far greater than most people ever realize.”

Karen Marie Moning book Darkfever

Source: Darkfever

People

“Dangerous? Do you remember what Xavier's power is? Teleportation. Limited Teleportation, They guy can move about 10 feet. Worst thing he could do to me? Poke me in the eyes, and go "Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk" and Zip away before I can smack him," - Elena”

Kelley Armstrong (1968) Canadian writer

Guy

“See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places”

Neal Stephenson book Snow Crash

Source: Snow Crash

World

“It was very pleasant to savor its aroma, for smells have the power to evoke the past, bringing back sounds and even other smells that have no match in the present. -Tita”

Laura Esquivel book Like Water for Chocolate

Source: Like Water for Chocolate

Past

“It's possible, in a poem or short story, to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language, and to endow those things—a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman's earring—with immense, even startling power.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

“While a truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.”

Alan Moore V for Vendetta

Source: V for Vendetta

“Faith is to fear nothing, to stand unswayed, the power to surmount any obstacle.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Fear, Faith

“She had never imagined she had the power to make someone else so happy. And not a magical power, either--a purely human one.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Imagination, Happiness

“… Harboring an emotion as powerful as gratitude has power of its own.”

Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer

Source: The Prisoner of Cell 25

Gratitude

“This is a mournful discovery.
1)Those who agree with you are insane
2)Those who do not agree with you are in power.”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

Source: VALIS

“Her heart was heavy because it was open, and so things filled it, and so things rushed out of it, but still the heart kept beating, tough and frighteningly powerful and meaning to shrug off the rest of her and continue on its own.”

Helen Oyeyemi (1984) British author

Source: Mr. Fox

Heart

“That is what literature offers—a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Literature

“I am not the law, but I represent justice so far as my feeble powers go.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

Justice, Law

“His kisses were gifts. He kissed with everything he had, with power and passion and hunger and love. He held nothing back, giving everything, exposing everything.”

Sylvia Day (1973) American writer

Source: Reflected in You

Love, Hunger, Kiss, Passion

“Not all powers are spectacular." Hestia looked at me. "Sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Variant: Sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding. -Hestia
Source: The Last Olympian

“No' is golden. 'No' is the kind of power the good witch wields. It's the way whole, healthy, emotionally evolved people manage to have relationships with jackasses while limiting the amount of jackass in their lives.”

Cheryl Strayed book Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

Source: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar

People, Way

“Even the most powerful woman needs a place to unwind.”

Barbara Taylor Bradford (1933) British author

Source: Being Elizabeth

“Feminism, coveting social power, is blind to women’s cosmic sexual power.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sex, Art and American Culture : New Essays (1992), Rape and Modern Sex War, p. 52

Women

“For each person there is a sentence — a series of words — which has the power to destroy him”

Philip K. Dick book VALIS

VALIS (1981)
Context: For each person there is a sentence — a series of words — which has the power to destroy him … another sentence exists, another series of words, which will heal the person. If you're lucky you will get the second; but you can be certain of getting the first: that is the way it works. On their own, without training, individuals know how to deal out the lethal sentence, but training is required to deal out the second.

Personality

“nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

World

“Your powers drain you too much,' [Percy] noted.
[Nico] nodded sleepily. 'With great power… comes great need to take a nap. Wake me up later.”

Rick Riordan book The Last Olympian

Source: The Last Olympian

“Nothing external to you has any power over you.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Peaceful

“This massive ascendancy of corporate power over democratic process is probably the most ominous development since the end of World War II, and for the most part "the free world" seems to be regarding it as merely normal.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food

War, World, Parting

“Oh would some power the giftie gie us, To see ourselves as others see us.”

Robert Burns To a Louse

To a Louse, st. 8 (1786) http://www.poetry-online.org/burns_to_a_louse.htm Variant: O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us Source: The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Burns Context: O, wad some Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us! It wad frae monie a blunder free us, An' foolish notion. What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us An' ev'n Devotion