Power Politics Quotes

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

  Abraham Lincoln

  Inspirational, Leadership, Wisdom

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• Politics is not about power. Politics is not about money. Politics is not about winning for the sake of winning. Politics is about the improvement of people's lives.

  Paul Wellstone

  Winning, People, Sake

  "Honoring Paul Wellstone's Legacy: Fighting Like Hell for Health Care Reform" by Mike Elk, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 14, 2009.

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• Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas.

  Joseph Stalin

  Powerful, Knowledge, Gun

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• Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

  Mao Zedong

  Military, Gun, Chinese Revolution

  Speech at sixth plenary session of Central Committee, Communist Party, Yan'an, China, 6 Nov. 1938

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• We think of politics in terms of power and who has the power. Politics is the end to which that power is put.

  Ngugi wa Thiong'o

  Thinking, Ends, Term

  Source: www.alternet.org

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• Whoever can conquer the street will one day conquer the state, for every form of power politics and any dictatorship-run state has its roots in the street.

  Joseph Goebbels

  Running, Roots, History

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• There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

  John Adams

  Inspirational, Trust, Freedom

  'Notes for an Oration at Braintree' (Spring 1772)

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• Power politics is the diplomatic name for the law of the jungle.

  Ely Culbertson

  Power, Law, Names

  Ely Culbertson (1946). “Must We Fight Russia?”, Philadelphia ; Toronto : John C. Winston

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• 

  Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.

  Groucho Marx

  Art, Freedom, Political Will

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• No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.

  Jacob Bronowski

  Power, Political, Politics

  1971 In The Listener.

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• The 20th 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 against democracy.

  Alex Carey

  Wisdom, Democracies Have, Australia Day

  Alex Carey, Andrew Lohrey (1997). “Taking the Risk Out of Democracy: Corporate Propaganda Versus Freedom and Liberty”, p.18, University of Illinois Press

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• If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

  Frank Herbert

  Wise, Thinking, Government

  Frank Herbert (2017). “The Dosadi Experiment and The Eyes of Heisenberg: Two Classic Works of Science Fiction”, p.107, Tor Science Fiction

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• Any creed whose basic doctrines do not include respect for the creeds of others, is simply power politics masquerading as philosophy.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Philosophy, Doctrine, Creeds

  Sydney J. Harris (1976). “Best of Sydney J. Harris”

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• You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

  Charles A. Beard

  Life, Father, Struggle

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• I am convinced that those who get themselves involved in the machinery of power politics, even for the purpose of destroying it, are bound to fail in their purpose. To destroy it we have to stay out of it. If we want to cut down a tree, it is of no use to climb into its branches. The desire to keep contact with something, even to destroy it, is a subtle and insidious illusion.

  Vinoba Bhave

  Cutting, Tree, Desire

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• The leading student of business propaganda, Australian social scientist Alex Carey, argues persuasively that “the 20th 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.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Democracies Have, Australia Day

  Noam Chomsky (1997). “World Orders, Old and New”, p.89, Pluto Press

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• Being a soldier [in the wars of modern power politics] was like being on a team in a sport that drew no crowds, except for the players' own parents and friends.

  Dan Wakefield

  Sports, Team, War

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• Power politics existed before Machiavelli was ever heard of; it will exist long after his name is only a faint memory. What he did, like Harvey, was to recognize its existence and subject it to scientific study.

  Max Lerner

  Memories, Science, Names

  Max Lerner (1992). “Ideas for the Ice Age: Studies in a Revolutionary Era”, p.96, Transaction Publishers

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• Well, they really didn't have to worry, because the way power politics works, the World Court can't do anything. Look, there's one country in the world at the moment which has refused to accept World Court decision-that's the United States. Is anybody going to do anything about it?

  Noam Chomsky

  Country, Worry, Decision

  "Chomsky on Haiti". Interview with Keane Bhatt, www.counterpunch.org. March 9, 2010.

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• Perfectionism, no less than isolationism or imperialism or power politics, may obstruct the paths to international peace. Let us not forget that the retreat to isolationism a quarter of a century ago was started not by a direct attack against international cooperation but against the alleged imperfections of the peace.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Peace, Imperfection, May

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1950). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1944-1945, Volume 13”, p.498, Best Books on

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• The 'realist' conception of continuing old-fashioned 'balance of power' politics may have been well founded in the past, but it is inconsistent with our increasing interdependent world. On moral grounds alone there can be no justification for the 20th century level of killing. To settle disputes without violence must become the primary goal of foreign policy for every nation.

  Robert McNamara

  Past, Goal, Balance

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• We know the Chinese have revealed millions of background information on millions of people in the United States, and these, I suppose, ultimately are part of international big-power politics.

  Jeff Sessions

  People, Chinese, United States

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• I think it's perfectly possible for us to stay outside of power politics, or parliamentary politics, and speak about things like the American hegemony in the region or speak about the unjust war on terror that's been brought to our borders.

  Fatima Bhutto

  War, Thinking, Borders

  Source: www.sbs.com.au

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• After moving to Los Angeles in the early '90s, I started looking into "music for picture" more seriously and in broader scope. My collaboration as a programmer and arranger with Graeme Revell exposed me for the first time to the full spectrum of film music, including the hectic demands of orchestral scoring and the power politics surrounding the finalization of any score for a major motion picture in Hollywood.

  Paul Haslinger

  Moving, Collaboration, Hollywood

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• I had always been fascinated by the bizarre world of cards. It was a world of pure power politics where rewards and punishments were meted out immediately.

  Ely Culbertson

  Punishment, Cards, World

  "Total Peace: What Makes Wars and how to Organize Peace".

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