Quotes about Power

This wise man observed that wealth is a tool of freedom. But the pursuit of wealth is the way to slavery.

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.

One uses power by grasping it lightly. To grasp too strongly is to be taken over by power, and thus to become its victim.

Are you already training my replacement? Piter demanded. Replace you? Why, Piter, where could I find another Mentat with your cunning and venom? The same place you found me, Baron. Perhaps I should at that, the Baron mused. You do seem a bit unstable lately. And the spice you eat! Are my pleasures too expensive, Baron? Do you object to them? My dear Piter, your pleasures are what tie you to me. How could I object to that?

The abyss remains. It is pregnant with all the things yet to be. Ah, what gentle violence!

To use raw power is to make yourself infinitely vulnerable to greater powers.

All of history is a malleable instrument in my hands. Ohhh, I have accumulated all of these pasts and I possess every fact—yet the facts are mine to use as I will and, even using them truthfully, I change them.

Do as she says, you wormfaced, crawling, sand-brained piece of lizard turd!

A world is supported by four things... the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing...without a ruler who knows the art of ruling.

I must rule with eye and claw — as the hawk among lesser birds. - Duke Leto Atreides

In politics, the tripod is the most unstable of all structures.

Power bases are very dangerous because they attract people who are truly insane, people who seek power only for the sake of power.