There is a distribution of power internal to this country – enormous disparity of economic and other power – and that influences everything that happens in dramatic ways, so many issues simply don’t come up in elections. Noam Chomsky, Conversation with Charlie Rose 2003, Youtube 54.54
Political leaders operate within a pretty narrow framework which is set by external factors, power systems of various kinds. Noam Chomsky, lecture New York Peace Action Benefit, ‘Obama’s Imperialist Policies’, Youtube 56.24
Actual decision-making power was being more and more concentrated … in corporate institutions that are totalitarian in essence and designed to protect power, protect the minority, the opulent, from market discipline. Noam Chomsky, lecture 1995, ‘Protecting Corporate Power Against Democracy’, Youtube
The twentieth century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: the growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.’ Alex Carey, interview Noam Chomsky ibid.
We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 11/13: Knowledge or Certainty ***** BBC 1973
Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power. P J O’Rourke
The whole system that we live in drills into us that we’re powerless, that we’re weak, that our society is evil, that it is crowded etc. and so forth. It’s all a big fat lie. We are powerful, beautiful, extraordinary. There is no reason why we cannot understand who we truly are, where we are going. There is no reason why the average human being cannot be fully empowered. We are incredibly powerful beings. Carl Sagan
I have found power in the mysteries of thought. Euripides, Alcestis
For also knowledge itself is power. Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacae
A teacher should have maximal authority and minimal power. Thomas Szasz
Knowledge is power. Information is power. The secreting or hoarding of knowledge or information may be an act of tyranny camouflaged as humility. Robin Morgan
The American people should be made aware of the trend toward monopolization of the great public information vehicles and the concentration of more and more power over public opinion in fewer and fewer hands. Spiro T Agnew
You can’t trust anybody with power. Newt Gingrich
Proximity to power has an unsurprising ability to mutate a politician’s spinal cord into bright yellow jelly. Tariq Ali, The Obama Syndrome
Just how powerful is Art? ... Can it change the world? Simon Schama’s Power of Art: Rothko, BBC 2006
For the Roman pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire church, has full, supreme and universal power over the whole church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered. Catechism of Catholic Church 1994 p254 #882
This is about power not love. Troy 2004 starring Brad Pitt & Eric Bana & Orlando Bloom & Rose Byrne & Peter O’Toole & Diane Kruger & Brian Cox & Sean Bean & Julie Christie & Saffron Burrows et al, director Wolfgang Petersen, Hector to Helen
I felt no remorse. No guilt whatsoever. I felt only one thing – I felt power. Witness to the Mob 1998 starring Tom Sizemore & Nicholas Turturro & Debi Mazar & Abe Vigoda & Philip Baker Hall & Frank Vincent & Lenny Venito & Angelo Ruggiero & Michael Imperioli et al, director Thaddeus O’Sullivan
A great new source of power that could revolutionise industry. Master Spy 1964 starring Stephen Murray & June Thorburn & Alan Wheatley & John Carson & Jack Watson & Ernest Clark & Peter Gilmore & Marne Maitland & Ellen Pollock et al, director Montgomery Tully, Turganev
A balance of power – the trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all but the only one that preserves both sides. Star Trek s2e19: A Private Little War s2e19, Kirk to McCoy
I have given you the power of the Q. Use it. Use your power. Star Trek: The Next Generation s1e10: Hide & Q, Q to Riker
I’m no longer a member of the Continuum. My superiors have decided to punish me. They say I’ve spread chaos through the universe. And they’ve stripped me of all my powers. Star Trek: The Next Generation s3e13: Deja Q, Q on board
I stand before you de-frocked. ibid.
What good is power if you’re not willing to use it? Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s6e1: A Time To Stand, Kira to Odo
Bormann was obsessed with power ... And he certainly influenced Hitler in many decisions. Walter Frentz, Hitler’s photographer
When a republic’s most venerable institutions no longer operate as they were intended, it becomes possible for small cabals to usurp power, and, while keeping the forms, corrupt the function of those institutions for their own ends. Looking at things that way, the George W Bush presidency has been both result and symptom of the decadence of America’s constitutional mechanisms. T D Allman
Power is the great [often ultimate] aphrodisiac. Henry Kissinger, cited New York Times 19th January 1971
Power makes you a monarch, and all the fancy robes in the world won’t do the job without it. Laurell K Hamilton, Narcissus in Chains
Man is insatiable for power; he is infantile in his desires and, always discontented with what he has, loves only what he has not. People complain of the despotism of princes; they ought to complain of the despotism of man. Joseph de Maistre
The problem of power is how to achieve its responsible use rather than its irresponsible and indulgent use – of how to get men of power to live for the public rather than off the public. Robert Kennedy, The Pursuit of Justice 1964
The men who make power make an indispensable contribution to the nation’s greatness; but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable. Especially when that questioning is disinterested. For they determine whether we use power or power uses us. John F Kennedy, Amherst College
When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. John F Kennedy
Power corrupts, and there is nothing more corrupting than power exercised in secret. Daniel Schorr
I hate government. I hate power. I think that man’s existence in so far as he achieves anything is to resist power. To minimise power. To devise systems of society in which power is the least exerted. Malcolm Muggeridge, televised interview
Every tyrant in history has said that he wants power to do good for his fellows. The necessary thing is to check and stop people having power. Malcolm Muggeridge, televised interview
In total, during the first eighty-eight years of this century, almost 170 million men, women, and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is as though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a plague of Power, not of germs. Dr R J Rummel, Death by Government
The only thing that white people have that black people need or should want is power – and no-one holds power for ever. James Arthur Baldwin
Power without responsibility: the prerogative of the harlot through the ages. Rudyard Kipling, re Lord Beaverbrook
All parties without exception, when they seek for power, are varieties of absolutism. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. Edmund Burke
Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though for but one year, can never willingly abandon it. Edmund Burke