Nature of power

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Power may justly be compared to a great River, while kept within its due Bonds, is both Beautiful and Useful; but when it overflows its Banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemm'd, it bears down all before it, and brings Destruction and Desolation wherever it comes. If then this is the Nature of Power, let us at least do our Duty, and like wise Men (who value Freedom) use our utmost Care to support Liberty, the only Bulwark against lawless Power, which in all Ages has sacrificed to it's wild Lust and boundless Ambition, the Blood of the best Men that ever liv'd.

Andrew Hamilton

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Hamilton, Andrew. Argument in John Peter Zenger Trial. 1735, New York's City Hall, New York, NY, USA.

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The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms his strength into right, and obedience into duty.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

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Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 1, ch. 3.

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Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 1, ch. 3.

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Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.

Simone Weil

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Original Citation

Weil, Simone. "L'iliade ou le poeme de la force [The Iliad, or The Poem of Force]." Les Cahiers du Sud, 1940.

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Current Citation

Weil, Simone. "The Iliad, or The Poem of Force." Simone Weil: An Anthology, translated by Sian Miles. Grove Press, 2000.

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Riches, knowledge and honour are but several sorts of power.

Thomas Hobbes

Leviathan

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Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil. London: Andrew Crooke, 1651, pt. 1, ch. 4.

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Current Citation

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan, edited by Christopher Brooke. Penguin Classics, 2017, pt. 1, ch. 4.

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It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.

James Madison

Federalist 48

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Madison, James [published as Publius]. "Federalist No. 48: These Departments Should Not Be So Far Separated as to Have No Constitutional Control Over Each Other." New York Packet, 1 Feb. 1788.

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Madison, James. "No. 48: Some blending of powers is necessary.--Madison." The Federalist: A Commentary on the Constitution of the United States, edited by Robert Scigliano. The Modern Library, 2001.

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Power resides where men believe it resides. It’s a trick, a shadow on the wall. And a very small man can cast a very large shadow.

Game of Thrones

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"What Is Dead May Never Die." Game of Thrones, written by George R.R. Martin and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, directed by Alik Sakharov, season 2, episode 3, Home Box Office and Television 360 and Grok! Studio, 2012.

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To have power means not to have to give in, and to force the environment or the other person to do so. Power in this narrow sense is the priority of output over intake, the ability to talk instead of listen. In a sense, it is the ability to afford not to learn.

Karl Deutsch

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Deutsch, Karl. The Nerves of Government: Models of Political Communication and Control. Free Press, 1963, ch. 7.

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Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't.

Schindler's List

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Schindler's List. Directed by Steven Spielberg, Amblin Entertainment/Universal Pictures, 1993.

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Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.

William Pitt, Earl of Chatham

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Pitt, William. Speech in the House of Lords on John Wilkes. 9 Jan. 1770, Palace of Westminster, Westminster, London, England, UK.

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Power, like a desolating pestilence,
Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience,
Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,
Makes slaves of men, and, of the human frame,
A mechanized automation.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Queen Mab

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Original Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. Queen Mab; A Philosophical Poem; With Notes. London, 1813, pt. 3.

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Current Citation

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Queen Mab." Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Major Works, edited by Zachary Leader and Michael O'Neill. Oxford University Press, 2009, pt. 3.

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