Power quotes

“Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.” Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.” Tony Robbins

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular.” Tony Robbins

“Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment.” Tony Robbins

“Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant.” Tony Robbins

“As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.” Bill Gates

“I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.” Bill Gates

“People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.” Bill Gates

“Well the protester I think is a very powerful thing. It's basically a mechanism of democracy that, along with capitalism, scientific innovation, those things have built the modern world. And it's wonderful that the new tools have empowered that protestor so that state secrets, bad developments are not hidden anymore.” Bill Gates

“I was lucky to be involved and get to contribute to something that was important, which is empowering people with software.” Bill Gates

“Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.” Francis Scott Fitzgerald

“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.” Milton Friedman

“Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.” Milton Friedman

“The power to do good is also the power to do harm.” Milton Friedman

“It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.” Wayne Dyer

“Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.” Wayne Dyer

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Frederick Douglass

“Man's greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.” Frederick Douglass

“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.” Rene Descartes

“When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.” Rene Descartes

“Religion is about turning untested belief into unshakable truth through the power of institutions and the passage of time.” Richard Dawkins

“God exists, if only in the form of a meme with high survival value, or infective power, in the environment provided by human culture.” Richard Dawkins

“If we're destroying our trees and destroying our environment and hurting animals and hurting one another and all that stuff, there's got to be a very powerful energy to fight that. I think we need more love in the world. We need more kindness, more compassion, more joy, more laughter. I definitely want to contribute to that.” Ellen DeGeneres

“My dad is still Christian Scientist. My mom's not, and I'm not. But I believe in God, and that there's a higher power and an intelligence that's bigger than us and that we can rely on. It's not just us, thinking we are the ones in control of everything. That idea gives me support.” Ellen DeGeneres

“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.” Bertrand Russell

“The fundamental concept in social science is Power, in the same sense in which Energy is the fundamental concept in physics.” Bertrand Russell

“Religions, which condemn the pleasures of sense, drive men to seek the pleasures of power. Throughout history power has been the vice of the ascetic.” Bertrand Russell

“Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.” Bertrand Russell

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

“Admiration of the proletariat, like that of dams, power stations, and aeroplanes, is part of the ideology of the machine age.” Bertrand Russell