Power shapes human history, relationships, and societies. It can inspire progress or breed corruption. At its best, power enables leadership, justice, and protection; at its worst, it produces arrogance, abuse, and tyranny. Thinkers from Plato to Martin Luther King Jr. have reflected on its nature, warning of its dangers while pointing to its potential for good. 
"Ecce Homo"--Cigoli. Who's got the power?
On a personal level, however, our sense of freedom is narrower than it seems. Beyond genetics and habits, we are bound by inner forces we rarely notice. Cognitive biases shape our thinking, emotions override reason, and early conditioning imprints patterns we struggle to escape. Addictions and cravings further erode self-control, while culture and language limit what we can imagine. Biology—through hunger, fatigue, or aging—also restrains us, as does our tendency toward self-deception. "The heart is deceitful above all things." (Jeremiah 17:9) These internal boundaries remind us that freedom is not absolute, but rather a continual negotiation with forces within ourselves, both conscious and unconscious.
The following quotes explore the complexity of power—how it is gained, tested, misused, and restrained—and why understanding it remains essential for anyone who seeks to influence others or navigate a world built upon it.
14 Quotes on Power
- “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
— Lord Acton - “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
— Abraham Lincoln - “Knowledge itself is power.”
— Francis Bacon - “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.”
— Thomas Jefferson (attributed) - “The measure of a man is what he does with power.”
— Plato - “Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”
— Honoré de Balzac - “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.”
— Mahatma Gandhi - “Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic.”
— Martin Luther King Jr. - “Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”
— Margaret Thatcher - “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
— Sun Tzu - “The object of power is power.”
— George Orwell, 1984* - “With great power there must also come great responsibility.”
— Stan Lee (Spider-Man comics, 1962) - “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”
— Alice Walker - “Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.”
— George Bernard Shaw
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