Theme
Power
Influence, authority, and how it is used.
Every quote here is provenance-checked. AI will happily put a fake quote on a beautiful slide — these are the ones you can actually use, with the right name on them.
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Verified quotes about power
Each is traced to a real source and correctly credited. ✓ Free to use = public domain, cleared for commercial reuse. Open one for a paste-ready credit line and its reuse status.
“Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven”
“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful”
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”
“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists”
“He who overcomes others is strong; he who overcomes himself is mighty”
“I came, I saw, I conquered”
“I do not wish women to have power over men, but over themselves”
“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule”
“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both”
“It is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting”
“Knowledge itself is power”
“Man is certainly stark mad; he cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens”
“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
“Read my lips: no new taxes”
“Speak softly and carry a big stick”
“The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven”
“The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help”
“The pen is mightier than the sword”
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting”
“Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it”
“Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth”
“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back”
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent”
“One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors”
“The ballot is stronger than the bullet”
“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle”
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any”
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Don’t get caught out
Commonly shared about power — but misattributed
Popular power lines that get pinned on the wrong name. If you use one, credit it correctly.
“A constitution should be short and obscure”
ReallyCharles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord · not Napoleon Bonaparte
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine”
ReallyThomas Jefferson · not Thomas Jefferson
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have”
ReallyGerald R. Ford · not Thomas Jefferson
“Able was I ere I saw Elba”
ReallyAn anonymous American wordsmith (“J.T.R.” of Baltimore) · not Napoleon Bonaparte
“All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down”
ReallyCornelia Funke · not Friedrich Nietzsche
“Any man who thinks he is going to be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him should take a close look at the American Indian”
ReallyUnknown (anonymous newspaper filler) · not Henry Ford
“Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor”
ReallyUnknown (anonymous internet author) · not William Shakespeare
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch”
ReallyAnonymous (falsely credited to Benjamin Franklin) · not Benjamin Franklin
“Do you feel lucky, punk?”
ReallyHarry Julian Fink, R. M. Fink & Dean Riesner
“Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality”
ReallyDarryl Anka · not Albert Einstein
“Firearms stand next in importance to the Constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence”
ReallyC. S. Wheatley · not George Washington
“Fly, my pretties, fly!”
ReallyNoel Langley, Florence Ryerson & Edgar Allan Woolf
“Give a girl the right shoes and she can conquer the world”
ReallyBette Midler · not Marilyn Monroe
“Give them a whiff of grapeshot”
ReallyThomas Carlyle · not Napoleon Bonaparte
“Go ahead, make my day”
ReallyJoseph Stinson, John Milius, or Charles B. Pierce
“Government is like fire, a dangerous servant and a fearful master”
ReallyUnknown — a reworked proverb, falsely credited to Washington · not George Washington
“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master”
ReallyGeorge Washington · not George Washington
“Greed is good”
ReallyStanley Weiser & Oliver Stone