The Wickans know that the gift of power is never free. They know enough not to envy the chosen among them, for power is never a game, nor are glittering standards raised to glory and wealth. They...

Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.

Knowing nothing can get you humiliated and knowing a little bit can get you killed, but knowing all of it will bring you power.

no one bothered dressing up in priests' robes, for even in chaos hierarchy rules and their cloth wasn't rich enough.

"... When a man aspires to power, I ask one simple question: 'Does he think like a businessman?' Luisa rolls her napkin into a compact ball. 'I ask three simple questions. How did he get that power?...

Do you think I can't write this and get someone - a drunk married to a fool - to swear to it? Do you think I can't set myself up as a historian? As a storyteller? Do you think I can't write a history...

A power claimed and challenged and thrice carried out is true

But by this time I was acutely conscious of the gap between law and justice. I knew that the letter of the law was not as important as who held the power in any real-life situation.

Well it is said that neither love nor power Admit a rival, even for an hour.

Yes, I, Gandalf the Grey,' said the wizard solemnly. 'There are many powers in the world, for good or for evil. Some are greater than I am. Against some I have not yet been measured. But my time is...

As long as a population can be induced to believe in a supernatural hereafter, it can be oppressed and controlled. People will put up with all sorts of tyranny, poverty, and painful treatment if...

When you play a game of thrones you win or you die.

Adversity has its compensations, that in falling, and in failing, we rise. It is as if there is a hand behind us that sets to right all imbalances. Why do you think the saints seldom had the temporal...

People who want nothing need nothing more than power.

But it is no use to justify yourself. It is no good to explain. It is weak to be anecdotal. It is wise to conceal the past even if there is nothing to conceal. A man's power is in the half-light, in...

There is a weird power in a spoken word.

RUTH: If you take the glass…I'll take you.

The more powerful the powerful appear the more invisible they become, said Armando. This used to work differently than now. In the old days it was said that the powerful merged with the divine and the...

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

Fearlessness in those without power is maddening to those who have it.

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.

You can't retire to weakness -- you've got to learn to control strength.

You don't make waves unless there's a reason, and it better be good. Because once you do, that's it. You're a trouble make, and they never think of you any other way.

Some people," Aunt Emily answered sharply, "are so busy seeing all sides of every issue that they neutralize concern and prevent necessary action. There's no strength in seeing all sides unless you...

But although the cliche says that power always corrupts, what is seldom said ... is that power always reveals. When a man is climbing, trying to persuade others to give him power, concealment is...

Once she wasn't supposed to like it. To have her in a position she didn't like, that was power. Even if she liked it she had to pretend she didn't. Then she was supposed to like it. To make her do...

There is something powerful in the whispering of obscenities, about those in power. There's something delightful about it, something naughty, secretive, forbidden, thrilling. It's like a spell, of...

The combination of power, fear, and mania can be deadly. The leader, convinced that he might be betrayed, acts first and betrays others first. Afraid that he's not well liked, he works so hard to get...

The day of democracy is past," he said. "Past for ever. That day began with the bowmen of Crecy, it ended when marching infantry, when common men in masses ceased to win the battles of the world, when...

I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among...