Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

One knew in advance that life in New York would not be easy, but there were cheap rents in cold-water lofts without heat, and the excitement of being here made up for those hardships. I didn’t move to New York to make a fortune.

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

I have a scheme for stopping war. It’s this – no nation is allowed to enter a war till they have paid for the last one.

The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

The devil ain’t got no power over me. The devil come, and me shake hands with the devil. Devil have his part to play. Devil’s a good friend, too… because when you don’t know him, that’s the time he can mosh you down.

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

When you go to war as a boy, you have a great illusion of immortality. Other people get killed, not you… Then, when you are badly wounded the first time, you lose that illusion, and you know it can happen to you.

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

The American claim that the bombing of North Vietnam was directed against military targets does not withstand direct investigation.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.

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

A master performer like Bill Clinton never lost sight of the fact that as president he had to project confidence and power, but if he was speaking to a group of autoworkers he would adjust his accent and his words to fit the audience, and do the same for a group of executives.

Morality is contraband in war.

War is the province of danger.

Every man needs slaves like he needs clean air. To rule is to breathe, is it not? And even the most disenfranchised get to breathe. The lowest on the social scale have their spouses or their children.

In 1962, war was avoided by Khrushchev’s willingness to accept Kennedy’s hegemonic demands.

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.

One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.

The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy – the one that’s absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

Man has the power to act as his own destroyer – and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

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.

Well, I think indigenous peoples have ways of living on the Earth that they’ve had forever. And they’ve been overrun by organized religion, which has had a lot of money and power.

Wondrous is the strength of cheerfulness, and its power of endurance – the cheerful man will do more in the same time, will do it; better, will preserve it longer, than the sad or sullen.

Laws are silent in time of war.

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.

Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, if you can stay a little, the price will fall.

The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have most to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.

My great-grandfather and his two brothers fought at Gettysburg. They were in artillery, and they survived the war, thank goodness. So I revere what they did. I think their motivations were honorable when they undertook the war and participated in it along with other Southerners.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

My experience with power, you can maintain it, or you get it taken from you. You get you some newfound power and go crazy, and it get taken from you quick.

World War II broke out in 1939, and many people credit that war with saving the economy.

Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people.

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons.

Michael Jordan changed so much in basketball, he took his power to make a difference. It’s so much going on in music right now and somebody has to make a difference.

Power is not alluring to pure minds.

We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

If they want peace, nations should avoid the pin-pricks that precede cannon shots.

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes… can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

For me, education was power.

Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

Just as the system of the sun, planets and comets is put in motion by the forces of gravity, and its parts persist in their motions, so the smaller systems of bodies also seem to be set in motion by other forces and their particles to be variously moved in relation to each other and, especially, by the electric force.

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.