The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

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.

I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the Scriptures, but with experiments, and demonstrations.

The reactionary is always willing to take a progressive attitude on any issue that is dead.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

I guess every single word I’ve ever said is going to be dissected now.

The usual fortune of complaint is to excite contempt more than pity.

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses.

There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man. The biography of the man himself cannot be written.

The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

The reward of one duty is the power to fulfill another.

A true critic ought to dwell upon excellencies rather than imperfections, to discover the concealed beauties of a writer, and communicate to the world such things as are worth their observation.

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.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

Stupidity is a talent for misconception.

There is nothing in which people more betray their character than in what they laugh at.

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.

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it.

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

I think it’s an Irish thing. We don’t really care. We say it as we mean it, and you have to deal with it. The truth is the truth.

When you think about it, Adolf Hitler was the first pop star.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

The ‚free-floating intellectual‘ may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.

Everyone seems to think that digital technology devoids the medium of content, but that is not true at all. If anything, it broadens the content.

The Medici created and destroyed me.

The term ‚globalisation‘ is conventionally used to refer to the specific form of investor-rights integration designed by wealth and power, for their own interests.

Corruption is one of the most common reasons I hear in views that criticize aid.

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

Power is a complicated word and can take many forms.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

Industry need not wish.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

Some day science may have the existence of mankind in power, and the human race can commit suicide by blowing up the world.

Maybe stories are just data with a soul.

Politics… have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

Knowledge will give you power, but character respect.

Where is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

We dissect failure a lot more than we dissect success.

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.

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

The history of philosophy is to a great extent that of a certain clash of human temperaments.

I don’t think the intelligence reports are all that hot. Some days I get more out of the New York Times.

There is no just and serene criticism as yet.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece.

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

We never fully grasp the import of any true statement until we have a clear notion of what the opposite untrue statement would be.

All art is quite useless.

Let blockheads read what blockheads wrote.

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

In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency. And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power.

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.

When I speak at my local church, which I try to do 35 to 40 times a year, I try in every lesson to take the Old Testament text or New Testament text and apply them to what is happening to me or how that applies to the audience that I’m teaching in a modern, fast-changing, technological world. I use headlines, interfaith and that sort of thing.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.