Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible.

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

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.

If the people are happy, united, wealthy, and powerful, we presume the rest. We conclude that to be good from whence good is derived.

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

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

For many men, the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

There are very few people who really appreciate my shows. People come to the show and they pay and they enjoy it, but I don’t really think most people really understand what they’ve seen.

Rascals are always sociable, more’s the pity! and the chief sign that a man has any nobility in his character is the little pleasure he takes in others‘ company.

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

The aim of the wise is not to secure pleasure, but to avoid pain.

That’s the biggest gift I can give anybody: ‚Wake up, be aware of who you are, what you’re doing and what you can do to prevent yourself from becoming ill.‘

The mind is never satisfied with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of future felicity… The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.

Power is my mistress. I have worked too hard at her conquest to allow anyone to take her away from me.

There’s not much time to unwind, but you know what, it’s because I love what I do. I look forward to the season. I look forward to playing games. It doesn’t ever feel like work.

When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‚Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.‘

I often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

I don’t call myself a Buddhist. I’m a free spirit. I believe I’m here on earth to admire and enjoy it; that’s my religion.

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God’s Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

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

Electricity is really just organized lightning.

The desire of excessive power caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge caused men to fall.

Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.

Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it.

I need more sex, OK? Before I die I wanna taste everyone in the world.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

When anyone has the power to destroy the whole human race in a matter of hours, it becomes a moral issue. The church must speak out.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

I hope the fans have enjoyed listening as much as I’ve enjoyed doing the games. I don’t ever go to the park where I don’t have a good day. I don’t like losing. But I don’t think I ever go to the park where I have a bad day. I don’t think once.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

The purposes of the United States should not be doubted. The Security Council resolutions will be enforced – the just demands of peace and security will be met – or action will be unavoidable. And a regime that has lost its legitimacy will also lose its power.

The beginning of reform is not so much to equalize property as to train the noble sort of natures not to desire more, and to prevent the lower from getting more.

Next to the young, I suppose the very old are the most selfish.

It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

You should hurry up and acquire the cigar habit. It’s one of the major happinesses. And so much more lasting than love, so much less costly in emotional wear and tear.

Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good.

If you want to deal with an epidemic – crime or health – the smartest and most effective and cheapest way to deal with it is prevention first.

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable – and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power Who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

You can never get enough of what you don’t want.

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.

He that fails in his endeavors after wealth or power will not long retain either honesty or courage.

I think I don’t take myself too seriously. You know as far as, it’s a fun life. I take my music serious, but I like to have fun.

You see the film, you might be entertained, and if it’s not a great film, it loses its power very quickly. I think even simply acceptable books stay with us a lot longer.

Aging can be fun if you lay back and enjoy it.

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

Intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.

I just enjoy it, I am living a life that I never even dreamt of.