Thursday, September 20, 2007

Quotes: Power.

A collection of quotes on various topics. The sentence in bold face is a plain statement of the quote that follows.

Power
The gods hated arrogance.
Power 158 The gods who hated beyond all else the arrogance of power had passed judgment upon them [the Persians]. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

Greed seeks power and possession that no power and possession can satisfy.
Power 167 The motive power was greed, that strange passion for power and possession which no power and no possession satisfy. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

Excessive power brings about its own destruction.
Power 168 ...great power brought about its own destruction. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

No one who desires power is fit to wield it.
Power 75 To the fathers of the Church as to Plato, no one who desired power was fit to wield it. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

Limit your aim to what is within your power.
Power 85 “May God give me,” he [Pindar] prays, “to aim at that which is within my power.” E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

A person who believes is a power greater than 99 with only interest.
Power 105 Mill: One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interest. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

Exercising power for human welfare and freedom gives serenity.
Power 621 …serene in the exercise of power for the ends of human welfare and freedom. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

People who try for vast change usually feel that they have some irresistible power. Power 8 The men who rush into undertakings of vast change usually feel they are in possession of some irresistible power. Hoffer, The True Believer

He who rides the tiger of power usually is eaten by the tiger.
Power 276 ...those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside. Sorenson, Kennedy

Power is meant to be used to get things done.
Power 436 [Power] was there, in the White House, to be used without any sense of guilt or greed, as a means of getting things done. Sorenson, Kennedy

The more he experienced power, the more he realized its limitations.
Power 439 As his months in office increased, however, he [Kennedy] talked more and more about the limitations of power. Sorenson, Kennedy

The olive branch and arrows—the American President needs both.
Power 575 JFK: “On the Presidential coat of arms, the American eagle holds in his right talon the olive branch, while in his left he holds a bundle of arrows…I intend to give equal attention to both.” Sorenson, Kennedy

Observing the very ordinary human being conversing—a human being who had the power to summon from all corners of the globe people to do his bidding.
Power 312 It seemed strange--stranger than I can tell--to think that the central figure in the cluster of men and women, chatting under the trees like the most ordinary individual in the land, was a man who could open his lips and ships would fly through the waves, locomotives would speed over the plains, couriers would hurry from village to village, a hundred telegraphs would flash the word to the four corners of an empire that stretches its vast proportions over a seventh part of the habitable globe, and a countless multitude of men would spring to do his bidding. Twain, Innocents Abroad.

People with great power have terrible tempers and quick mood swings.
Power 30 Nurse: Great people’s tempers are terrible, always/ Having their own way, seldom checked,/ Dangerous they shift from mood to mood. Euripides, Medea.

Reason and morality are helpless against a great passion for power.
Power 421 Nietzsche: Against this passion for power, reason and morality are helpless; they are but weapons in its hands, dupes of its game. Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy, Nietzsche.

Power comes first and then the social class that wields it.
Power 515 Power first, or no leading class. Emerson, Manners.

Once powerful men in a cell with four walls and a toilet—the ultimate destination of people with a passion for power.
Power 81 Frank: Here are the would-be rulers of Germany—each in a cell like this, with four walls and a toilet, awaiting trial as ordinary criminals…proof of God’s amusement with men’s sacrilegious quest for power. Conot, Justice at Nuremberg.

People with a tradition of unlimited power become cruel and harsh; they know it, but they cannot control themselves.
Power 452 You may not have come across it, but I have seen how good men brought up in those traditions of unlimited power grow more irritable with the years, turn cruel and harsh, and although aware of it cannot control themselves…. Tolstoi, War and Peace.

The power behind leaders is the collective will of the masses.
Power 1411 Power is the collective will of the masses, transferred by their expressed or tacit consent to the chosen rulers. Tolstoi, War and Peace

Culture always involves power.
Power xiv Power has a way of accompanying culture…. Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.

Power always thinks it has a greater vision than the weak.
Power xvii John Adams who said: “Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.” Sevareid, Not So Wild a Dream.

The arrogance of power was the sin that the Greeks hated most.
Power sin 172 The arrogance that springs from a consciousness of power was the sin Greeks had always hated most. E. Hamilton. The Greek Way.

JFK wanted to use both reason and power to achieve his vision of America and the world.
Power, Reason 107 In fact, he[Kennedy] was intensely committed to a vision of America and the world, and committed with equal intensity to the use of reason and power to achieve that vision. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days

No comments:

Post a Comment