109 Power Quotes To Inspire

In our journey through life, we often seek words of wisdom that resonate with our inner drive and ambitions. Power quotes have the ability to ignite our passions, bolster our resilience, and offer a renewed sense of purpose. This curated collection of the top 109 power quotes is designed to inspire and motivate you. Whether you're facing challenges, chasing dreams, or simply looking for a boost of positivity, these words from some of the most influential minds can offer the encouragement you need to keep moving forward. Dive in and let these powerful quotes empower your spirit and fuel your ambitions.

1. “I wish that all nations may recover and retain their independence; that those which are overgrown may not advance beyond safe measures of power, that a salutary balance may be ever maintained among nations, and that our peace, commerce, and friendship, may be sought and cultivated by all. It is our business to manufacture for ourselves whatever we can, to keep our markets open for what we can spare or want; and the less we have to do with the amities or enmities of Europe, the better. Not in our day, but at no distant one, we may shake a rod over the heads of all, which may make the stoutest of them tremble. But I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power, the greater it will be.” - Thomas Jefferson

2. “You have the power to heal your life, and you need to know that. We think so often that we are helpless, but we're not. We always have the power of our minds…Claim and consciously use your power.” - LOUISE L. HAY

3. “The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.” - Adolf Hitler

4. “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it. ” - Roseanne Barr

5. “Since a time has come, Mademoiselle, when the severe laws of men no longer prevent women from applying themselves to the sciences and other disciplines, it seems to me that those of us who can should use this long-craved freedom to study and to let men see how greatly they wronged us when depriving us of its honor and advantages. And if any woman becomes so proficient as to be able to write down her thoughts, let her do so and not despise the honor, but rather flaunt it instead of fine clothes, necklaces, and rings. For these may be considered ours only by use, whereas the honor of being educated is ours entirely. ” - Louise Labé

6. “Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ” - Paulo Freire

7. “I was the lion who forced you to join with Aravis. I was the cat who comforted you among the houses of the dead. I was the lion who drove the jackals from you while you slept. I was the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mill so that you should reach King Lune in time. And I was the lion you do not remember who pushed the boat in which you lay, a child near death, so that it came to shore where a man sat, wakeful at midnight, to receive you.” - C.S. Lewis

8. “They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force--nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strength is just an accident arising from the weakness of others.” - Joseph Conrad

9. “Constitutions become the ultimate tyranny," Paul said. "They’re organized power on such a scale as to be overwhelming. The constitution is social power mobilized and it has no conscience. It can crush the highest and the lowest, removing all dignity and individuality. It has an unstable balance point and no limitations.” - Frank Herbert

10. “To think that because those who wield power in society wield in the end that of government, therefore it is of no use to attempt to influence the constitution of the government by acting on opinion, is to forget that opinion is itself one of the greatest active social forces. One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.” - John Stuart Mill

11. “With great power often comes great confusion.” - Dan Allen

12. “I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.” - Emily Dickinson

13. “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” - Frederick Douglass

14. “Knowledge is power; and power is best shared among friends.” - Otis Chandler

15. “Men of power have not time to read, yet men who do not read are not fit for power. ” - Michael Foot

16. “Not one little fellow need fear that he will be forbidden to pluck his shining grape from the cluster of political Power, that fruit reputed to be so full of wealth and glory. Can’t every gang become a club? and every club an assembly? an assembly, a convention? a convention, a senate? and isn’t a senate meant to rule? And what senate ever ruled without a man to rule it? And what did it all require? – Daring! – Aha! Well said! – What! is that all it takes? – Yes, all! The ones who have arrived say so. – Then courage, numskulls, give tongue and run for it! – That’s how it’s done” - Alfred de Vigny

17. “Power resides only where men believe it resides. [...] A shadow on the wall, yet shadows can kill. And ofttimes a very small man can cast a very large shadow.” - George R.R. Martin

18. “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.” - Mary Wollstonecraft

19. “And so even the righteous heart is besieged by the blinding light of false knowledge. Falsity is like an ocean that presses around solitary moments of truth, treatening to overwhelm or blind the seekers of knowledge, to eradicate them in an instant of self-deceiving brilliance.Knowledge is power; it guards our souls - guard it well.” - C.S. Goto

20. “There is no power relation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor any knowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations” - Michel Foucault

21. “Great empires are not maintained by timidity.” - Tacitus

22. “If one believes that words are acts, as I do, then one must hold writers responsible for what their words do.” - Ursula K. Le Guin

23. “Wir werden als abhängige Bürger geboren. Vom Moment unserer Geburt an sind wie Abhängige. Ein Zeichen dieser Abhängigkeit ist die Geburtsurkunde. [...] Entweder erhälst du die staatliche Urkunde [...], was dir zu einer Identität verhilft, die dem Staat während deines Lebens ermöglicht, dich zu identifizieren und im auge zu behalten (dich aufzuspüren); oder du kommst ohne eine Identität aus und verdammst dich selbst, wie ein Tier außerhalb des Staats zu leben (Tiere haben keine Personalausweise).” - J.M. Coetzee

24. “It's our faith that activates the power of God.” - Joel Osteen

25. “The power to change your life lies in the simplest of steps.” - Steve Maraboli

26. “She was kahuna, creating more life around her than was actually there, heightening the momentousness of each living thing by simply gazing upon it.” - Kiana Davenport

27. “Taking power away from a man is a dangerous thing. Someone always pays.” - Glenn Close

28. “Love and faith are not common companions. More commonly power and fear consort with faith....Power is not to be crossed; one must respect and obey. Power means strength, whereas love is a human frailty the people mistrust. It is a sad fact of life that power and fear are the fountainheads of faith.” - Saul Alinsky

29. “The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.” - Mahatma Gandhi

30. “Und in der Regel erweist es sich überdies als Vorteil, nicht über die Maßen klug zu sein. Der Mangel an Zweifel am eigenen Tun erleichtert das politische Führungsleben, während Skrupel und Reflexionswut es erheblich beschweren.” - Franz Walter

31. “When we touch the place in our lives where sexuality and spirituality come together, we touch our wholeness and the fullness of our power, and at the same time our connection with a power larger than ourselves.” - Judith Plaskow

32. “When it comes to controlling human beings there is no better instrument than lies. Because, you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.” - Michael Ende

33. “Crowds exhibit a docile respect for force, And are but slightly impressed by kindness, Which for them is scarcely other than a form of weakness. Their sympathies have never been bestowed upon easy going masters, but the tyrants who vigorously oppressed them. It is to these latter that they always erect the loftiest statues. It is true that they willingly trample on the despot whom they have stripped of his power, but it is because having lost his power he resumes his place among the feeble who are to be despised because they are not to be feared. The type of hero dear to a crowd will always have the semblance of a Caesar, His insignia attract them, His authority overawes them, and his sword instils them with fear.” - Gustave Le Bon

34. “You gain power by pretending to be weak.” - Chuck Palahniuk

35. “God has chosen to save the world through the cross, through the shameful andpowerless death of the crucified Messiah. If that shocking event is therevelation of the deepest truth about the character of God, then our whole wayof seeing the world is turned upside down… all values are transformed… Godrefuses to play games of power and prestige on human terms.” - Richard Hays

36. “My main concern is with the world order” - George Soros

37. “The main obstacle to further progress on the resource curse is China, and to a lesser extent India.” - George Soros

38. “More powerful than the mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.” - Victor Hugo

39. “This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.” - Susan Polis Schutz

40. “What better way for a ruling class to claim and hold power than to pose as the defenders of the nation.” - Christopher Hitchens

41. “Power is to be used in the service of others and only secondarily, if at all, for the benefit of oneself.” - Duane Elmer

42. “Power is meant to be shared with the goal of empowering others. Hoarded power weakens others and exalts oneself. Power, when grounded in biblical values, serves others by liberating them. It acknowledges that people bear the image of God and treats them in a way that will nurture the development of that image. In so doing, we honor their Creator.” - Duane Elmer

43. “Calmness is the cradle of power.” - J.G. Holland

44. “If you are interested in equality at all costs, you should never have gone looking for your power in the first place. Holding authority with integrity is more important than making others feel good.” - Anne Hill

45. “It seems, in fact, that the more advanced a society is, the greater will be its interest in ruined things, for it will see in them a redemptively sobering reminder of the fragility of its own achievements. Ruins pose a direct challenge to our concern with power and rank, with bustle and fame. They puncture the inflated folly of our exhaustive and frenetic pursuit of wealth.” - Alain De Botton

46. “My son, your ineptitude is so vast, your incompetence so profound, that I am certain you are inhabited by greater power than I have ever known.” - Peter S. Beagle

47. “...you are strong only as long as you don't deprive people of everything. For a person you've taken everything from is no longer in your power. He's free all over again.” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

48. “By religion, then, I understand a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man which are believed to direct and control the course of nature and of human life. Thus defined, religion consists of two elements, a theoretical and a practical, namely, a belief in powers higher than man and an attempt to propitiate or please them. Of the two, belief clearly comes first, since we must believe in the existence of a divine being before we can attempt to please him. But unless the belief leads to a corresponding practice, it is not a religion but merely a theology; in the language of St. James, “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” In other words, no man is religious who does not govern his conduct in some measure by the fear or love of God. On the other hand, mere practice, divested of all religious belief, is also not religion. Two men may behave in exactly the same way, and yet one of them may be religious and the other not. If the one acts from the love or fear of God, he is religious; if the other acts from the love or fear of man, he is moral or immoral according as his behaviour comports or conflicts with the general good.” - James George Frazer

49. “Who ought to be the king of france-the person who has the title, or the man who has the power?” - Pepin the Short

50. “Power revealed is power sacrificed. The truly powerful exert their influence in ways unseen, unfelt. Some would say that a thing visible is a thing vulnerable.” - Guillermo Del Toro

51. “How can the strength of one man stand against Jake and an army of demons?""He can," I countered, "if he has the power of Heaven on his side. After all, Christ was a man.""He was also the Son of God, there's a difference.""Do you think they could have crucified him if he wasn't human?" I asked. "He was flesh and blood, just like Xavier. You've been here so long you underestimate the power of humans. They're a force of nature.” - Alexandra Adornetto

52. “A waitress, bringing Finkler more hot water, interrupted Treslove's answer. Finkler always asked for more hot water no matter how much hot water had already been brought. It was his way of asserting power, Treslove thought. No doubt Nietzsche, too, ordered more hot water than he needed.” - Howard Jacobson

53. “Something amazing happens when we surrender and just love. We melt into another world, a realm of power already within us. The world changes when we change. The world softens when we soften. The world loves us when we choose to love the world.” - Marianne Williamson

54. “Man masters nature not by force, but by understanding” - Jacob Bronowski

55. “The history of your world is filled with the voice of the victor, the voice of power, although it was not always a voice of sanity, by any means.” - Barbara Marciniak

56. “Men don't rape women because their women are ugly," cousin Jostien said, but there was a protest at his words. "That's what my fa said! He says that inside their hearts and spirits they are nothing but little men who need to feel powerful.” - Melina Marchetta

57. “It does not take a great supernatural heroine or magical hero to save the world.We all save it every day, and we all destroy it -- in our own small ways -- by every choice we make and every tiniest action resulting from that choice.The next time you feel useless and impotent, remember what you are in fact doing in this very moment. And then observe your tiny, seemingly meaningless acts and choices coalesce and cascade together into a powerful positive whole.The world -- if it could -- will thank you for it.And if it does not... well, a true heroine or hero does not require it.” - Vera Nazarian

58. “It's always good to be underestimated.” - Melissa de la Cruz

59. “Crystal then read the red sticker out loud, "Dangerous, do not open." We both stared at each other for a moment. I was trying to figure out why a dumb book about power was dangerous” - Dominic Tomasi

60. “It is true that words have power, and one of the things they are able to do is get out of someone’s mouth before the speaker has the chance to stop them.” - Terry Pratchett

61. “It's wonderful to feel desired. There's a sense of power in it, really.” - Nancy Horan

62. “Virtue comes through contemplation of the divine, and the exercise of philosophy. But it also comes through public service. The one is incomplete without the other. Power without wisdom is tyranny; wisdom without power is pointless.” - Iain Pears

63. “In every community there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don't mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably the most dangerous people seek the power. While in the parlors of indignation the right-thinking citizen brings his heart to a boil. (p. 51)” - Saul Bellow

64. “Today is a new day. Don't let your history interfere with your destiny! Let today be the day you stop being a victim of your circumstances and start taking action towards the life you want. You have the power and the time to shape your life. Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life!” - Steve Maraboli

65. “Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.” - Raymond Lindquist

66. “Whoever has experienced the power and the unrestrained ability to humiliate another human being automatically loses his own sensations. Tyranny is a habit, it has its own organic life, it develops finally into a disease. The habit can kill and coarsen the very best man or woman to the level of a beast. Blood and power intoxicate ... the return of the human dignity, repentance and regeneration becomes almost impossible.” - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

67. “There was no doubt now in Ender's mind. There was no help for him. Whatever he faced, now and forever, no on ewould save him from it. Peter might be scum, but Peter had been right, always right; the power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.” - Orson Scott Card

68. “A stone thrown up into the air is bound to fall down, and absolute power is like a huge stone thrown up into the air.” - Mehmet Murat ildan

69. “Because our power is motivating, and gives momentum and ownership of changes to those who dream of failure.” - Lisa McMann

70. “We all know that there are language forms that are considered impolite and out of order, no matter what truths these languages might be carrying. If you talk with a harsh, urbanized accent and you use too many profanities, that will often get you barred from many arenas, no matter what you’re trying to say. On the other hand, polite, formal language is allowed almost anywhere even when all it is communicating is hatred and violence. Power always privileges its own discourse while marginalizing those who would challenge it or that are the victims of its power.” - Junot Diaz

71. “Concentrated power is bad""(name of chapter)” - William J Federer

72. “Sometimes the hardest power to master is the power of yielding. -Hestia” - Rick Riordan

73. “A preoccupation with power - black power, student power, flower power, poor power, 'the power structure' - is the striking aspect of the American political scene at the moment. Oddly enough, obsession with power goes hand in hand with a fear of power. Some of the New Left groups that talk the toughest about power are extremely reluctant to see power operate in any institutional form; within their own organizations, they shun 'hierarchies' and formally structured relations of authority. What the preoccupation with power reflects, essentially, is a deep=seated, pervasive feeling of powerlessness.” - Carey McWilliams

74. “He was in awe of the thirst that people had for someone to tell them that everything was going to be all right. He marveled at the gullibility and vulnerability of his fellow humans. No wonder the churches called them sheep. They were woolly-headed pack animals being herded around for the benefit of whoever knew how to control the dogs.” - Craig Ferguson

75. “I am about tribal feminine power. As a leader, I may stumble but my essence lives to the future-- of my people, of my literature, of my art. And when a tribesman turn against its leader, that tribe will become two. It may faulter my course, but it will not stifle my ending. I rule only among my believers.” - Kristie LeVangie

76. “How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?“Winston thought. “By making him suffer”, he said.“Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers imagined. A world of fear and treachery is torment, a world of trampling and being trampled upon, a world which will grow not less but MORE merciless as it refines itself. Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy – everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed.” - George Orwell

77. “Human love is directed to the other person for his own sake, spiritual love loves him for Christ's sake. Therefore, human love seeks direct contact with the other person; it loves him not as a free person but as one whom it binds to itself. It wants to gain, to capture by every means; it uses force. It desires to be irresistible, to rule.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

78. “Each of us has immense potential to achieve what we desire, unless you enliven and enlighten your life with inspiration, bring your dreams into reality through the power of desire you will never shine as bright as your potential.” - Steven Redhead

79. “Nay, could their numbers countervail the stars,Or ever-drizzling drops of April showers,Or wither'd leaves that autumn shaketh down,Yet would the Soldan by his conquering powerSo scatter and consume them in his rage, That not a man should live to rue their fall.” - Christopher Marlowe

80. “Until one nation ceases its attempts to dominate another, there will never be true freedom. Until one religion relinquishes its quest to prove its god superior to that of another, there shall never be world peace. We will never truly prosper or experience lasting harmony, until we refrain from preaching the gospel of our own moral values and our personal preferences by forcing it upon others.” - Anthon St. Maarten

81. “There is no Art made without power, and there is no reason for Art to be made except for power.” - Gary D. Schmidt

82. “I had cooperated. I could not have refused. I was smitten with her, half in love but also afraid, because in my life (and she seemed to know this) I had not loved anyone without having been wounded. Love was power and possession, love caused pain: you were never more exposed than when you were in love, never more wounded; possession was an enslavement, something stifling.” - Paul Theroux

83. “I tell you, money can't build your spire for you. Build it of gold and it would simply sink deeper.” - William Golding

84. “It is an heretic that makes the fire, Not she which burns in't.” - William Shakespeare

85. “Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.” - Robert McKee

86. “Certain women because of their female power and seductiveness could bring destruction to a family.” - Margaret Way

87. “Men with power had the responsibility to know what was best, and they so rarely did.” - Beck Sherman

88. “The biggest trick of power may be to make its own existence unseen.” - Amine Zidouh

89. “Creating consent (hegemony) is never a simple act. It is rather the result of the social structures and the cultural patterns that dictates for each group its behavior and for each institutions its practices.” - Amine Zidouh

90. “Political action means taking on responsibility. This cannot happen without power. Power is to serve responsibility.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

91. “Not only are animals unable to avail themselves of language to assert their own rights, but many fewer humans have a clear sense of kinship with animals than have a clear sense of kinship with other humans. Among beings with subjective states of awareness, animals are the untouchable caste, those whom human others would rather not acknowledge, let alone render assistance.” - Gary Steiner

92. “I am hungry for power, but not to lord over others; only to own myself.” - Deborah Feldman

93. “...Again she did not seem to hear, still looking into Cale’s eyes. Then slowly, hopelessly, she dropped her gaze. “I understand,” she said. It was that, of course, that pierced him as if she had stabbed him through the heart. To him it was the sound of lost faith and it was unendurable. He felt he’d become a kind of god in her eyes, and it was simply impossible to give up her adoration.” - Paul Hoffman

94. “I pull my power more tightly around me like a magic binky.” - Sam Cheever

95. “He would be able to create a scent that was not merely human, but super human, an angels scent, so indescribably good and vital that who ever smelt it would be enchanted and with his whole heart would have to love him.” - Patrick Suskind

96. “...don't you realize a flawless profile means nothing when a mere smile drives me to desperation? Don't you covet that power?..” - John Geddes

97. “Without question, the balance of power on the planet today lies in the hands of business. Corporations rival governments in wealth, influence, and power. Indeed, business all too often pulls the strings of government. Competing institutions-religion, the press, even the military-play subordinate roles in much of the world today. If a values-driven approach to business can begin to redirect this vast power toward more constructive ends than the simple accumulation of wealth, the human race and Planet Earth will have a fighting chance.” - Ben Cohen

98. “Colour outside the lines, live outside the box. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do, or not. Don’t be afraid, listen to your heart. Heaven is a state of being – of one-ness, and Hell is a state of being – lost. We simply need to live as we best define ourselves, find our own ways of being who we are in our world. There is no requirement - only freedom of choice. We should not be judged if we are doing what we think best according to our perceptions at any given time. Guilt should be discarded, moved beyond - what matters is who we choose to be in the next moment, given what we might have learned. We continually create ourselves anew. Forgiving someone is a great way to show love, and forgive yourself too for the hurt you held onto far too long. Take back the energy you have wasted on these things and reclaim your power to be your next best self. Honour the past but refresh, expand, renew, fulfill. Heaven is within us, always reachable.” - jay woodman

99. “Mothers possess a power beyond that of a king on his throne.” - Mabel Hale

100. “It is not real," he whispered. "This place is only a thought that has grabbed hold of you. It cannot harm you. You are not of this place, and it has no power over you. You do not need it, nor do you owe it your allegiance." I nodded, listening only to his words and not to the rattling of the windows, which had begun as soon as we stepped inside.” - Rita Murphy

101. “To create reality, focus beyond the outcome, as if it has already happened.” - Gregg Braden

102. “We're all made the same but then born to change. Which then don't make us the same.” - Jonathan Anthony Burkett

103. “Might and wrong combined, like iron magnetized, are endowed with irresistible attraction.” - Nathaniel Hawthorne

104. “God is Infinite Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness - and LOVE; but if this idea is too vast for your human faculties - if your mind loses itself in its overwhelming infinitude, fix it on Him who condescended to take our nature upon Him, who was raised to Heaven even in His glorified human body, in whom the fulness of the Godhead shines.” - Anne Brontë

105. “To hear never-heard sounds, To see never-seen colors and shapes, To try to understand the imperceptible Power pervading the world; To fly and find pure ethereal substances That are not of matter But of that invisible soul pervading reality. To hear another soul and to whisper to another soul; To be a lantern in the darkness Or an umbrella in a stormy day; To feel much more than know. To be the eyes of an eagle, slope of a mountain; To be a wave understanding the influence of the moon; To be a tree and read the memory of the leaves; To be an insignificant pedestrian on the streets Of crazy cities watching, watching, and watching. To be a smile on the face of a woman And shine in her memory As a moment saved without planning.” - Dejan Stojanovic

106. “Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.” - Lucius Amaeus Seneca

107. “I may have power but I do not have strength.” - Rebecca L. Ethington

108. “Women do not need a knight in shining armor or a Prince Charming to come to their rescue.” - Bryant McGill

109. “But everyone has some kind of power to hurt people.” - Kristin Cashore