Quotes about Power

If human power in history—among races, nations, and other collectives as well as individuals—is self-interested power, then "the revelation of divine goodness in history" must be weak and not strong.

Appeals to reason and religion do not change the balance of power, because both are used to defend the interests of oppressors.

Living in a world of white oppressors, blacks have no time for a neutral God.

Can you do anything to bring about a miracle? The answer: God is God, we're not. But for reasons unknown, just as God willingly relates with us, so also he partners with us. He makes miracles happen; through our prayers we can see them happen.

There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments, the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from the acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both

If Men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.

If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

Jesus claimed He had the power to raise himself from the dead and His followers would be raised from the dead. That's a unique claim in the literature of religion.

Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith.

Where destruction is the motive, unity is dangerous.