Political Power Quotes - Page 4

• If welfare and equality are to be primary aims of law, some people must necessarily possess a greater power of coercion in order to force redistribution of material goods. Political power alone should be equal among human beings; yet striving for other kinds of equality absolutely requires political inequality.

  Tibor R. Machan

  Equality, Order, Law

  Tibor R. Machan (1995). “Private Rights and Public Illusions”, p.81, Transaction Publishers

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• Revolutions and revolutionary wars are inevitable in class society, and without them it is impossible to accomplish any leap in social development and to overthrow the reactionary ruling classes and therefore impossible for the people to win political power.

  Mao Zedong

  Peace, War, Winning

  "On Contradiction" by Mao Zedong, 1937.

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• Increasingly independent black economic, cultural and political power gave Blacks more freedom to do what came natural to them. Divorced from White influence and culture, they reverted quickly to their genotype - increasingly typical of black societies around the world. Males exhibited exaggerated sexual aggression and promiscuity that led to the dissolution of the Black nuclear family in America. Females reverted to the age-old African model of maternal provisioning of children.

  David Duke

  Children, Independent, America

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• I can very well say without hesitation that all those who have political power, even if they use it well have acquired it by demonic mediation and even if they are not conscious of it, they are worshippers of diabolos.

  Jacques Ellul

  Political, Use, Politics

  "Si tu es le Fils de Dieu" by Jacques Ellul, (p. 76), 1991.

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• I think that white women are more apt to read laterally. So I think there's some strong identification for women, and their political and social positions, and minorities. I think that the political power of, let's say, the average Indian man and a white woman are pretty equal.

  Sherman Alexie

  Strong, Thinking, Men

  "Redeemers". The New Yorker Interview, www.newyorker.com. April 21, 2003.

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• But veteran lawmakers torn apart by PTSD don't have a choice about being Exhibit A in the case against Washington politics. When you see what can happen to a page or a junior congressman, it passes on in a very real way, not in a history-class sense, that reality of what political power really is, .. Who are we to impose this emotional albatross on public servants? As a nation, we pretend to elect our leaders. It seems unjust to make them a special class to suffer for our sins over wrongheaded laws, or pay a continuing emotional price for securing their future careers.

  Leon Kass

  Real, Emotional, Class

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• [S]tatism is a system of institutionalized violence and perpetual civil war. It leaves men no choice but to fight to seize political power -- to rob or be robbed, to kill or be killed. ... Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production.

  Ayn Rand

  Country, War, Fighting

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• Investment that only goes to enrich an already wealthy elite bent on monopolizing both economic and political power cannot contribute toward égalité and justice - the foundation stones for a sound democracy.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Justice, Political, Democracy

  "'Please Use Your Liberty to Promote Ours'" by Aung San Suu Kyi, www.nytimes.com. June 16, 2012.

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• I don't think it would be a good idea for scientists to have more political power. Scientists as a group are more inclined to try to derive an ought from an is, than the population at large.

  David Deutsch

  Thinking, Ideas, Political

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• Is Christianity just another special-interest group, clawing for political power? Or, even if Christians are acting as God's spokesmen, must Christians always conduct themselves politically as if Christianity were just another special-interest group? Do Christians conduct evangelism this way?.

  Gary North

  Christian, Political, Special

  Gary North (1989). “Political polytheism: the myth of pluralism”, Inst for Christian Economics

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• The result of cutting [political power] up into little bits is simply that the man who can sweep the greatest number into one heap will govern the rest... In a pure democracy the ruling men will be the wirepullers and their friends; but they will no more be on an equality with the voters than soldiers of Ministers of State are on an equality with the subjects of monarchy.

  James Fitzjames Stephen

  Cutting, Men, Numbers

  James Fitzjames Stephen (1873). “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, p.240

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• Legitimacy is the elixir of political power.

  Fareed Zakaria

  Political, Legitimacy, Elixir

  Fareed Zakaria (2007). “The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad (Revised Edition)”, p.255, W. W. Norton & Company

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• There is the past and its continuing horrors: violence, war, prejudices against those who are different, outrageous monopolization of the good earth's wealth by a few, political power in the hands of liars and murderers, the building of prisons instead of schools, the poisoning of the press and the entire culture by money. It is easy to become discouraged observing this, especially since this is what the press and television insist that we look at, and nothing more.

  Howard Zinn

  War, Liars, School

  Howard Zinn (2015). “A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present”, p.687, Routledge

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• I believe that the biblical teaching is clear. It always contests political power. It incites to "counterpower," to "positive" criticism, to an irreducible dialogue (like that between king and prophet in Israel), to antistatism, to a decentralizing of the relation, to an extreme relativizing of everything political, to an anti-ideology, to a questioning of all that claims either power or dominion (in other words, of all things political), and finally, if we may use a modern term, to a kind of "anarchism" (so long as we do not relate the term to the anarchist teaching of the nineteenth century).

  Jacques Ellul

  Kings, Teaching, Biblical

  "The Subversion of Christianity" by Jacques Ellul, translated by G. Bromiley, (p. 116), 1986.

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• To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom to order their actions, and dispose of their possessions and persons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave, or depending upon the will of any other man.

  John Locke

  Men, Thinking, Order

  John Locke (1821). “Two treatises of government”, p.189

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• MEN being, as has been said, by nature, all free, equal, and independent, no one can be put out of this estate, and subjected to the political power of another, without his own consent.

  John Locke

  Independent, Men, Political

  Second Treatise of Civil Government ch. 8, sec. 95 (1690)

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• There is not a more dangerous experiment than to place property in the hands of one class, and political power in those of another... If property cannot retain the political power, the political power will draw after it the property.

  Daniel Webster

  Wisdom, Hands, Class

  Daniel Webster (1830). “Speeches and Forensic Arguments”, p.517

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• [The loss-of-strength gradient is] the degree to which military and political power diminishes as we move a unit distance away from its home base.

  Kenneth E. Boulding

  Military, Distance, Moving

  "Conflict and Defense: A General Theory". Book by Kenneth E. Boulding, p. 245, 1962.

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• Whether the issue was black political power or nuclear power, Scott-Heron didn't mince words. His comeback record, "I'm New Here," doesn't mince words either, but instead of political battles, these songs suggest he's fighting personal ones.

  Will Hermes

  Song, Fighting, Issues

  "A Surprising Record From Gil Scott Heron". "All Things Considered" with Melissa Block and Michele Norris, www.npr.org. February 11, 2010.

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• At EMILY's List, we’re in the business of expanding the political power of women.

  Ellen Malcolm

  Political, Lists, Expanding

  "Let the Celebration Begin!" by Ellen Malcolm, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 19, 2009.

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• The Gringo, locked into the fiction of white superiority, seized complete political power, stripping Indians and Mexicans of their land while their feet were still rooted in it. Con el destierro y el exilo fuimos desuñados, destroncados, destripados - we were jerked out by the roots, truncated, disemboweled, dispossessed, and separated from our identity and our history.

  Gloria E. Anzaldúa

  Land, Roots, White

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• America, like Britain before her, is now the great defender of the Status Quo. She has committed herself against revolution and radical change in the underdeveloped world because independent governments would destroy the world economic and political system, which assures the United States its disproportionate share of economic and political power ... America's preeminent wealth depends upon keeping things in the underdeveloped world much as they are, allowing change and modernization to proceed only in a controlled, orderly, and nonthreatening way.

  Richard Barnet

  Independent, America, Government

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• Unequal access to money and media plus bias, external and internalized, and male-dominant religions and illegality at the polls - all those are reasons for women's wildly unequal political power.

  Gloria Steinem

  Media, Political, Males

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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• It would seem that if despotism were to be established among the democratic nations of our days, it might assume a different character; it would be more extensive and more mild; it would degrade men without tormenting them. I do not question that, in an age of instruction and equality like our own, sovereigns might more easily succeed in collecting all political power into their own hands and might interfere more habitually and decidedly with the circle of private interests than any sovereign of antiquity could ever do.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Men, Hands

  Alexis de Tocqueville (2015). “Democracy in America - Vol. I. and II.”, p.760, Read Books Ltd

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• If we will not endure a king as a political power, we should not endure a king over the production, transportation, and sale of any of the necessaries of life.

  John Sherman

  Kings, Economic Inequality, Political

  "Elizabeth Warren’s Consolidation Speech Could Change the Election" by Paul Glastris, washingtonmonthly.com. June 30, 2016.

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