Great English Quotes and Aphorisms on Power 2 by famous writers

An aphorism is nothing else but the slightest
form of writing raised to the highest level of expressive communication. Carl William Brown

60,000 QUOTES SPIDER

QUOTES AND APHORISMS ON POWER 2

Napoleon for the sake of a good name broke in pieces half the world.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist)

Those that are firm in their will mold the world to themselves.

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832, German poet, dramatist, novelist)

If you tell the truth, you have infinite power supporting you; but if not, you have infinite power against you.

Charles Gordon

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, American President (3rd))

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, American President (3rd))

The quality of the will to power is, precisely, growth. Achievement is its cancellation. To be, the will to power must increase with each fulfillment, making the fulfillment only a step to a further one. The vaster the power gained the vaster the appetite for more.

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-, American author)

Whenever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.

Thomas C. Haliburton (1796-1865, Canadian jurist, author)

Power over a man's subsistence amounts to power over his will.

Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804, American statesman)

In oratory the will must predominate.

David Hare (1947-, British playwright, director)

The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.

Vaclav Havel (1936-, Czech playwright, president)

The point of power is always in the present moment.

Louise L. Hay (American metaphysical teacher, lecturer, author)

Author's website: www.hayhouse.com

If a person has no delicacy, he has you in his power.

William Hazlitt (1778-1830, British essayist)

Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men and rocks all of them to manhood.

Heinrich Heine (1797-1856, German poet, journalist)

Thoughts mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire are powerful things.

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970, American speaker, author, "Think And Grow Rich")

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983, American author, philosopher)

Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from the sense of their inadequacy and impotence. They hate not wickedness but weakness. When it is in their power to do so, the weak destroy weakness wherever they see it.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983, American author, philosopher)

Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983, American author, philosopher)

Calmness is the cradle of power.

Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881, American author)

Man has will, but woman has her way.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894, American author, wit, poet)

To live by one man's will becomes the cause of all misery.

Richard Hooker (1554-1600, British theologian)

I said to the almond tree, "Friend, speak to me of God," and the almond tree blossomed.

Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957, Greek writer)

People do not lack strength; they lack will.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885, French poet, dramatist, novelist)

The law always limits every power it gives.

David Hume (1711-1776, Scottish philosopher, historian)

The exercise of power in this century has meant for all of us in the United States not arrogance, but agony.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973, American President (36th))

Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or evil-the silent, unconscious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what man really is, not what he pretends to be.

William George Jordan

The course of human history is determined, not by what happens in the skies, but what takes place in our hearts.

Arthur Keith

Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Henry Kissinger (1923-, American Secretary of State)

The will to win is not nearly as important as the will to prepare to win.

Bobby Knight (1940-, American basketball coach)

You possess a potent force that you either use, or misuse, hundreds of times every day.

Martin J. Kohe (American publisher, author)

We should keep silent about those in power; to speak well of them almost implies flattery; to speak ill of them while they are alive is dangerous, and when they are dead is cowardly.

Jean De La Bruyere (1645-1696, French classical writer)

The power that the women we love have over us is greater than that which we have over ourselves.

Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680, French classical writer)

He who gains a victory over other men is strong; but he who gains a victory over himself is all powerful.

Lao-Tzu (BC 600-?, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism)

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.

Lao-Tzu (BC 600-?, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism)

Nothing in the world is more flexible and yielding than water. Yet when it attacks the firm and the strong, none can withstand it, because they have no way to change it. So the flexible overcome the adamant, the yielding overcome the forceful. Everyone knows this, but no one can do it.

Lao-Tzu (BC 600-?, Chinese philosopher, founder of Taoism)

We cannot live by power, and a culture that seeks to live by it becomes brutal and sterile. But we can die without it.

Max Lerner (1902-1992, American author, columnist)

This world is run by people who know how to do things. They know how things work. They are equipped. Up there, there's a layer of people who run everything. But we -- we're just peasants. We don't understand what's going on, and we can't do anything.

Doris Lessing (1919-, British novelist)

Must a government be too strong for the liberties of its people or too weak to maintain its own existence?

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, American President (16th))

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, American President (16th))

Will springs from the two elements of moral sense and self-interest.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865, American President (16th))

What a person wills and not what they know determines their worth or unworth, power or impotence, happiness or unhappiness.

Robert Lindner

The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.

Vince Lombardi (1913-1970, American football coach)

Man was predestined to have free will.

Hal Luyah

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

Douglas Macarthur (1880-1964, American army general during WW II)

God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527, Italian author, statesman)

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527, Italian author, statesman)

Power? It's like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there.

Harold MacMillan (1894-1986, British Prime Minister)

Power never takes a step back except in the face of more power.

Malcolm X (1925-1965, American black leader, activist)

Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as you can change your beliefs.

Maxwell Maltz (1944-, Canadian-born American plastic surgeon, author of "Psycho-Cybernetics")

Every addition to true knowledge is an addition to human power.

Horace Mann (1796-1859, American educator)

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Zedong Mao (1893-1976, Founder of the People's Republic of China)

Power gravitates to the man who knows how.

Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)

The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.

Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)

The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.

Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)

There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become.

Orison Swett Marden (1850-1924, American author, founder of Success Magazine)

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956, American editor, author, critic, humorist)

Where there is a will there is a lawsuit.

Addison Mizner

Man is born to seek power, yet his actual condition makes him a slave to the power of others.

Hans J. Morgenthau (1904-1980, German American political scientist)

The mastery of nature is vainly believed to be an adequate substitute for self mastery.

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971, American theologian, historian)

Not necessity, not desire -- no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything -- health, food, a place to live, entertainment -- they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900, German philosopher)

Everything the Power does, it does in a circle.

Native American Proverb (Sayings of Native American origin)

The power of the world always works in circles.

Native American Proverb (Sayings of Native American origin)

Power-worship blurs political judgment because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.

George Orwell (1903-1950, British author, "Animal Farm")

The will is commendable though the ability may be wanting.

Ovid (BC 43-18 AD, Roman poet)

Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.

George S. Patton (1885-1945, American army general during World War II)

In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.

Laurence J. Peter

Power is every stealing from the many to the few.

Wendell Phillips (1811-1884, American reformer, orator)

In an ant colony, the dew is a flood.

Afghani Proverb

If power is for sale, sell your mother to buy it. You can always buy her back again.

Arabian Proverb (Sayings of Arabian origin)

Two things rule the world: reward and punishment.

Bosnian Proverb

Water can wear away even the hardest rock.

Burmese Proverb

Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes.

Chinese Proverb (Sayings of Chinese origin)

When the hyena is gone, that is when the dog barks.

Ethiopian Proverb (Sayings of Ethiopian origin)

Although pepper is tiny, its taste is intense.

Hungarian Proverb (Sayings of Hungarian origin)

Voice of one, voice of none.

Italian Proverb (Sayings of Italian origin)

A boy's will is the will of the wind.

Norse Proverb (Sayings of Norse origin)

The king goes as far as he may, not as far as he could.

Spanish Proverb (Sayings of Spanish origin)

If we cannot do what we will, we must will what we can.

Yiddish Proverb (Sayings of Yiddish origin)

All, or the greatest part of men that have aspired to riches or power, have attained thereunto either by force or fraud, and what they have by craft or cruelty gained, to cover the foulness of their fact, they call purchase, as a name more honest. Howsoever, he that for want of will or wit useth not those means, must rest in servitude and poverty.

Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618, British courtier, navigator, writer)

To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that's real power.

Ayn Rand (1905-1982, Russian philosopher, author, "Atlas Shrugged")

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004, American President (40th))

The look of a king is itself a deed.

Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825, German novelist)

I feel it now. There's a power in me to grasp and give shape to my world; I know that nothing has ever been real without my beholding it.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926, German poet)

Personal power is the ability to take action.

Anthony Robbins (1960-, American author, speaker, peak performance expert, coach)

Author's website: www.anthonyrobbins.com

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945, American President (32nd))

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919, American President (26th))

There is an urgent need -- in fact, a national survival need -- for invigorating intellectual life, for upgrading the general regard for intellectual excellence. The United States must experience an intellectual renaissance or it will experience defeat. The time cannot be far off -- if indeed, it is not already here -- when the strength of a nation, measured in terms of any kind of world competition, will depend less on the number of its bombs than on the number of its learned men.

Elmo Roper

A few great minds are enough to endow humanity with monstrous power, but a few great hearts are not enough to make us worthy of using it.

Jean Rostand (1894-1977, French biologist, writer)

The least one can say of power is that a vocation for it is suspicious.

Jean Rostand (1894-1977, French biologist, writer)

The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970, British philosopher, mathematician, essayist)

All things must; man is the only creature that wills.