Force is the vital principle and immediate parent of despotism.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

The public is a ferocious beast; one must either chain it or flee from it.

Cruel leaders are replaced only to have new leaders turn cruel.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

People are underestimating the force of angry kids.

That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.

Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

International affairs is very much run like the mafia. The godfather does not accept disobedience, even from a small storekeeper who doesn’t pay his protection money. You have to have obedience; otherwise, the idea can spread that you don’t have to listen to the orders, and it can spread to important places.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.

The female loves to play man against man. And if she is in a position to do it, there is not one who will resist.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.

It is important to emphasize that guerrilla warfare is a war of the masses, a war of the people. The guerrilla band is an armed nucleus, the fighting vanguard of the people. It draws its great force from the mass of the people themselves.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly.

The only difference between the sane and the insane is that the sane have the power to lock up the insane.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.

When grand plans for scientific and defence technologies are made, do the people in power think about the sacrifices the people in the laboratories and fields have to make?

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

If you get to a point where the existing institutions will not bend to the popular will, you have to eliminate the institutions.

There are massive efforts on the part of the internet’s corporate owners to try to direct it to become a technique of marginalisation and control.

If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further into the future.

You could tell ‚The Handmaid’s Tale‘ from a male point of view. People have mistakenly felt that the women are oppressed, but power tends to organise itself in a pyramid. I could pick a male narrator from somewhere in that pyramid. It would interesting.

The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.

Free speech has been used by the Supreme Court to give immense power to the wealthiest members of our society.

Desire and force between them are responsible for all our actions; desire causes our voluntary acts, force our involuntary.

Control is the source of strategic power.

Every revolutionary ends up either by becoming an oppressor or a heretic.

When we wrote the Constitution, the intention was to give the commander in chief the authority how to use the forces when you authorize him to be able to use the forces.

Power over a man’s subsistence is power over his will.

I have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea by the force of gravity, but I have not yet assigned a cause to gravity.

To rule children by force is the technique of Satan, not of the Savior.

The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it.

The trouble with our people is as soon as they got out of slavery they didn’t want to give the white man nothing else. But the fact is, you got to give em something. Either your money, your land, your woman or your ass.

There is no inherent power in the office of the vice presidency. Zero. None. It’s all a reflection of your relationship with the president. I mean, Kennedy never let Johnson in the office.

The moment people feel they know what to expect from you, your spell on them is broken. More: You have ceded them power.

I feel strange when I get applauded by people in power… because it’s obvious that it’s them I’m criticizing, but they can’t show that in front of the cameras. It’s quite funny sometimes.

To bear means to support the weight of that which is held. It is a sacred trust to bear the priesthood, which is the mighty power and authority of God.

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

The wisest have the most authority.

Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

Weight, force and casual impulse, together with resistance, are the four external powers in which all the visible actions of mortals have their being and their end.

The world is all the richer for having a devil in it, so long as we keep our foot upon his neck.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.

If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, then we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

My desire to devolve authority has nothing to do with a wish to shirk responsibility.