Knowledge will give you power, but character, respect.

Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas.

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

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

Knowledge is power.

Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. This idea is not novel. Men have been led to it long ago by instinct or reason; it has been expressed in many ways, and in many places, in the history of old and new. We find it in the delightful myth of Antheus, who derives power from the earth; we find it among the subtle speculations of one of your splendid mathematicians and in many hints and statements of thinkers of the present time. Throughout space there is energy. Is this energy static or kinetic! If static our hopes are in vain; if kinetic — and this we know it is, for certain — then it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature.

Love is a driver, bitter and fierce if you fight and resist him, Easy-going enough once you acknowledge his power.

You shall have joy, or you shall have power, said God; you shall not have both. 1842

Place yourself in the middle of the stream of power and wisdom which animates all whom it floats, and you are without effort impelled to truth, to right and a perfect contentment.

You can't destroy the Poles but if you give them power they'll destroy themselves.

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power.

Benefiting and hurting others are ways of exercising one's power upon others; that is all one desires in such cases. One hurts those whom one wants to feel one's power, for pain is a much more efficient means to that end than pleasure; pain always raises the question about its origin while pleasure is inclined to stop with itself without looking back. We benefit and show benevolence to those who are already dependent on us in some way (which means that they are used to thinking of us as causes); we want to increase their power because in that way we increase ours, or we want to show them how advantageous it is to be in our power; that way they will become more satisfied with their condition and more hostile to and willing to fight against the enemies of our power.

Hence, the less government we have, the better, — the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.

To create and to annihilate material substance, cause it to aggregate in forms according to his desire, would be the supreme manifestation of the power of Man's mind, his most complete triumph over the physical world, his crowning achievement, which would place him beside his Creator, make him fulfill his Ultimate Destiny.

The economic transmission of power without wires is of all-surpassing importance to man.

CNN is one of the participants in the war. I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected president but refuses because he doesn't want to give up power.

When power leads men 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. Speech at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts (26 October 1963)

I have always found the word "Europe" in the mouths of those politicians who wanted from other powers something they did not dare to demand in their own name.

Our scientific powers have outrun our spiritual powers; we have guided missiles and mis-guided men.

Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.

You cannot have power for good without having power for evil too. Even mother's milk nourishes murderers as well as heroes.

When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power in man, the will to power, power itself. What is bad? All that is born of weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is growing, that resistance is overcome.

It is possible to imagine a society flushed with such a sense of power that it could afford to let its offenders go unpunished.