89 Powerful Quotes

In a world filled with constant change and challenges, the power of words has a unique way of grounding us, inspiring us, and guiding us forward. Quotes, in particular, encapsulate timeless wisdom and poignant reflections that resonate across generations. Whether you seek motivation, perspective, or simply a moment of introspective thought, our curated collection of the top 89 powerful quotes offers something for everyone. Join us as we explore these profound expressions of human experience, designed to uplift your spirit and ignite your imagination.

1. “Rage — whether in reaction to social injustice, or to our leaders’ insanity, or to those who threaten or harm us — is a powerful energy that, with diligent practice, can be transformed into fierce compassion.” - Bonnie Myotai Treace

2. “Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” - George Orwell

3. “Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” - Oscar Wilde

4. “profanity and obscenity entitle people who don't want unpleasant information to close their ears and eyes to you.” - Kurt Vonnegut

5. “What good is power when you're too wise to use it?” - Ursula K. Le Guin

6. “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't.” - Margaret Thatcher

7. “But thus do I counsel you, my friends: distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful!” - Friedrich Nietzsche

8. “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

9. “Ipsa scientia potestas est.Knowledge itself is power.” - Francis Bacon

10. “Man hätte meinen können, all die Unwillkommenen würden sich zusammentun und gemeinsam gegen die Macht auftreten, die sie nicht aufkommen lassen wollte. Aber dem war nicht so. Sie hassten einander ebensosehr, wie die Lehrerin sie hasste. Sie imitierten die [...] Lehrerin [...]. Es gab in jeder Klasse einen Unglücklichen, den die Lehrerin zum Sündenbock stempelte. Dieses arme Kind wurde unausgesetzt getadelt und gequält, an ihm reagierte sie ihre Unzufriedenheit mit sich selbst ab. Und kaum hatten die anderen Schüler erkannt, wen sich die Lehrerin zum Opfer gewählt hatte, wandten auch sie sich mit doppelter Grausamkeit und Herzlosigkeit gegen dieses arme Geschöpf. Dafür schmeichelten sie denjenigen, die bei der Lehrerin in Gunst standen. Vielleicht hatten sie irgendwie das Gefühl, dadurch dem Thron näher zu kommen.” - Betty Smith

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

12. “To hold power has always meant to manipulate idiots and circumstances; and those circumstances and those idiots, tossed together, bring about those coincidences to which even the greatest men confess they owe most of their fame” - Alfred de Vigny

13. “A mans life is interesting primarily when he has failed. I well know. For its a sign that he tried to surpass himself.” - Georges Clemenceau

14. “I live in the faith that there is a Presence and Power greater than I am that nurtures and supports me in ways I could not even imagine. I know that this Presence is All knowing and All Power and is Always right where I am” - Ernest Holmes

15. “Power,' as the sociologist Nachman Ben-Yehuda writes, 'enters the picture in two ways': the first entails constructing and legitimizing the moral system itself; the second, in enforcing it. In this view, 'deviants are those who simply do not have enough power to prevent others from defining them as such'.” - Shuli Barzilai

16. “Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind. ” - Ayn Rand

17. “Resistances do not derive from a few heterogeneous principles; but neither are they a lure or a promise that is of necessity betrayed. They are the odd term in relations of power; they are inscribed in the latter as an irreducible opposite.” - Michel Foucault

18. “Some people still think knowledge is power.” - Chuck Palahniuk

19. “I know that you are a mere flea! I know that you need only be squashed to be done away with! I know that I have fought this same battle a thousand thousand times before...but, perhaps this time I can crush you like the insect you are!” - Marv Wolfman

20. “Because there was a hunger in me to see everything and do everything. I wanted to be everyone I saw. I wasn't enough for me. Can you understand that?” - Sidney Sheldon

21. “I think that God that we have created and allowed to shape our culture through, essentially Christian theology is a pretty villainous creature. I think that one of the things that male patriarchal figure has done is, allowed under it's, his church, his wing, all kinds of corruptions and villainies to grow and fester. In the name of that God terrible wars have been waged, in the name of that God terrible sexism has been allowed to spread. There are children being born all across this world that don't have enough food to eat because that God, at least his church, tells the mothers and fathers that they must procreate at all costs, and to prevent procreation with a condom is in contravention with his laws. Now, I don't believe that God exists. I think that God is creation of men, by men, and for men. What has happened over the many centuries now, the better part of two thousand in fact, is that that God has been slowly and steadily accruing power. His church has been accruing power, and the men who run that church, and they are all men, are not about to give it up. If they give it up, they give up luxury, they give up comfort.” - Clive Barker

22. “I want to disabuse people of the idea that knowledge is power. Knowing how to get to Detroit is not the same thing as having the bus fare.” - Andrew Vachss

23. “Truly powerful people have great humility. They do not try to impress, they do not try to be influential. They simply are. People are magnetically drawn to them. They are most often very silent and focused, aware of their core selves. ... They never persuade, nor do they use manipulation or aggressiveness to get their way. They listen. If there is anything they can offer to assist you, they offer it; if not, they are silent.” - Sanaya Roman

24. “Power is the near neighbour of necessity.” - Pythagoras

25. “Writers are in many ways like demi-gods. With one stroke of a pen they can give life to a character, or strike them from existence, with nary a twinge of grief at their passing.” - Steven Lake

26. “Someone that you have deprived of everything is no longer in your power. He is once again entirely free.” - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

27. “I had never met a lord before, nor had I ever expected to meet one. It didn't matter what he looked like: he was a lord first, and a human being, with a face and limbs and body, long, long after.” - L.P. Hartley

28. “Harness the power of today. Seize the blessings of today! Make something happen, enhance your life, make someone laugh, help a friend, love, love, love!” - Steve Maraboli

29. “Most of us, most of the time, act within plays the lines of which were written long ago, the images of which require recognition, not invention.” - Sidney W. Mintz

30. “I always looked upon the acts of racist exclusion, or insult, as pitiable, for the other person. I never absorbed that. I always thought that there was something deficient about such people. ” - Toni Morrison

31. “Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.” - Peter Drucker

32. “If you make peace without defense power,then you should be really ready to be ruled.” - Toba Beta

33. “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, alistening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, allof which have the potential to turn a life around.” - Leo F. Buscaglia

34. “The metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man” - José Ortega y Gasset

35. “Often men who have been emotionally neglected and abused as children by dominating mothers bond with assertive women, only to have their childhood feelings of being engulfed surface. While they could not 'smash their mommy' and still receive love, they find that they can engage in intimate violence with partners who respond to their acting out by trying harder to connect with them emotionally, hoping that the love offered in the present will heal the wounds of the past. If only one party in the relationship is working to create love, to create the space of emotional connection, the dominator model remains in place and the relationship just becomes a site for continuous power struggle.” - bell hooks

36. “If I look at the mass I will never act.” - Mother Teresa

37. “One can hear all that's going on in the street. Which means that from the street one can hear what's going on in this house.” - Jean Genet

38. “With regard to power, women don’t have the vanity men have. They don’t need to make power visible, they only want the power to give them the other things they want. Security. Food. Enjoyment. Revenge. Peace. They are rational, power-seeking planners, who think beyond the battle, beyond the victory celebrations. And because they have an inborn capacity to see weakness in their victims, they know instinctively when and how to strike. And when to stop. You can’t learn that...” - Jo Nesbø

39. “The courtroom is one instance of the fact that while our society may be liberal and democratic in some large and vague sense, its moving parts, its smaller chambers--its classrooms, its workplaces, its corporate boardrooms, its jails, its military barracks--are flagrantly undemocratic, dominated by one commanding person or a tiny elite of power.” - Howard Zinn

40. “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

41. “You can't retire to weakness -- you've got to learn to control strength.” - Wallace Stegner

42. “Suicidal glory is the luxury of the irresponsible.” - Lois McMaster Bujold

43. “Fear is the lack of faith in one's ability to create powerful solutions.” - T.F. Hodge

44. “Really? And what curse befalls the Adams of the world?"Ann opens her mouth and, presumably thinking of nothing to say, closes it again. It is Felicity who answers, eyes steely. "They are weak to temptation. And we are their temptresses.” - Libba Bray

45. “I think this is a very important thing to understand about Christianity. It was from its very beginnings, it seems, a religion of great quarrels and wars, and it wooed the power of temporal authorities, and made them part of itself in the hope of resolving through sheer force its many arguments.” - Anne Rice

46. “The fairy tale belongs to the poor...I know of no fairy tale which upholds the tyrant, or takes the part of the strong against the weak. A fascist fairy tale is an absurdity.” - Erik Christian Haugaard

47. “In this world, who can do a thing, will not;And who would do it, cannot, I perceive:Yet the will's somewhat — somewhat, too, the power —And thus we half-men struggle.” - Robert Browning

48. “Do I look like I want to be eaten alive after sex?” - Nalini Singh

49. “You've got some power," Jakkin said. "One hug—and the lights go out!” - Jane Yolen

50. “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

51. “In this age, in this country, public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail; against it, nothing can succeed. Whoever molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes, or pronounces judicial decisions.” - Abraham Lincoln

52. “There is no place so dangerous as a world without magic.” - Terry Goodkind

53. “Another important consequence in the arrival of digital technology and its facilitation of feedback is that we can look at large systems and recognize them once more not only as part of ourselves, but also as components that can change... Now, though, we live in a world where text is fluid, where is responds to our instructions. Writing something down records it, but does not make it true or permanent. So why should we put up with a system we don't like simply because it's been written somewhere?” - Nick Harkaway

54. “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

55. “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.” - Oliver Cromwell

56. “Those candle flames were like the lives of men. So fragile. So deadly. Left alone, they lit and warmed. Let run rampant, they would destroy the very things they were meant to illuminate. Embryonic bonfires, each bearing a seed of destruction so potent it could tumble cities and dash kings to their knees.” - Brandon Sanderson

57. “How can a world be good in which Money is the moving power, and Self-interest the guiding star?” - H. Rider Haggard

58. “He [Eugène Rougon] believed exclusively in himself; where another saw reasons, Rougon possessed convictions; he subordinated everything to the incessant aggrandisement of his own ego. Despite being utterly devoid of real self-indulgence, he nevertheless indulged in secret orgies of supreme power.” - Émile Zola

59. “Seven years, Dawn. Working with the Slayer. Seeing my friends get more and more powerful... a witch. A demon. Hell, I could fit Oz in my shaving kit, but come a full moon, he had a wolfy mojo not to be messed with. Powerful, all of them. And I'm the guy who fixes the windows. They'll never know how tough it is, Dawnie, to be the one who isn't Chosen, to live so near the spotlight and never step in it. But I know. I see more than anybody realizes because nobody's watching me. I saw you last night, and I see you working here today. You're not special; you're extraordinary.” - Joss Whedon

60. “Change is the most beneficial power available to you, simply change the things you don't like, replacing them with your true desires.” - Steven Redhead

61. “...But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will tun wild and cause you grief.” - Robert Greene

62. “I know that love is about power, too. Who gives, who takes. Who is willing to risk showing their true self.” - Alison Goodman

63. “When you become the image of your own imagination, it's the most powerful thing you could ever do.” - Rupaul

64. “When Gansey was polite, it made him powerful. When Adam was polite, he was giving power away.” - Maggie Stiefvater

65. “There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness. With forgiveness, your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emerges--the power of Presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.” - Eckhart Tolle

66. “Majority decisions tend to be made without engaging the systematic thought and critical thinking skills of the individuals in the group. Given the force of the group's normative power to shape the opinions of the followers who conform without thinking things through, they are often taken at face value. The persistent minority forces the others to process the relevant information more mindfully. Research shows that the deciscions of a group as a whole are more thoughtful and creative when there is minority dissent than when it is absent.” - Philip G. Zimbardo

67. “It is always the enemy who started it, even if he was not the first to speak out, he was certainly planning it; and if he was not actually planning it, he was thinking of it; and, if he was not thinking of it, he would have thought of it.” - Elias Canetti

68. “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

69. “There are two powers in this world which cannot be matched. Beauty and Youth. Buy the beauty and imprison the youth. Give the best models, actress, and girls from town and nail them. I do not care how much it costs.” - Ravindra Shukla

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

71. “The more loving we can be, the more powerful we become.” - Silvia Hartmann

72. “Because love is also a power. A great power, and it should not be disdained.” - Sergei Lukyanenko

73. “In such a beast as this..." (he means the army)"...it was the collective power that went, collapsing like a long-exhausted animal, at once falling under its own weight as much as that of its enemy. It was a collective death and not a matter of bravery or even strength, and once it was down it was finished as a battle.” - Paul Hoffman

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

75. “You know what kind of person it takes to run for President? Not normal. They could start out okay, but by the time they reach that level they've sold their soul to the devil so many times and stomped the guts out of enough people that they are definitely not like you and me, not even close.” - David Baldacci

76. “You make the world come alive. You make the world colorful. You are the inspiration behind all that happens. You are the pillar of strength to many around you, the centrifugal force of your own little world, called family. I love being a women and celebrate being one everyday, hope you all do too!! And to all those who battle their various circumstances, the hurdles, the sacrifices and the compromises they make, wish them all inner strength! Happy Women's Day!” - Deeba Salim Irfan

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

78. “During the war, the holders of power in all countries found it necessary to bribe the populations into cooperation by unusual concessions. Wage-earners were allowed a living wage, Hindus were told they were men and brothers, women were given the vote, and young people were allowed to enjoy those innocent pleasures of which the old, in the name of morality, always wish to rob them. The war being won, the victors set to work to deprive their tools of advantages temporarily conceded.” - Bertrand Russell

79. “Religious toleration, to a certain extent, has been won, because people have ceased to consider religion so important as it was once thought to be. But in politics and economics, which have taken the place formerly occupied by religion, there is a growing tendency to persecution, which is not by any means confined to one party.” - Bertrand Russell

80. “He was one of those people in New York who was purported to "know everybody". "Knowing everybody" is a phrase that denotes not having many relations with people but having relations with a few people generally thought to be significant and powerful.” - Siri Hustvedt

81. “Everything great that has ever happened to humanity has begun as a single thought in someone's mind, and if anyone of us is capable of such a thought, then all of us has the same capacity, capability, because we're all the same.” - Yanni

82. “If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.” - C.S. Lewis

83. “the fact that every people feel itself threatened by the others gives the state it's definite unifying powers; it depends upon the instinct of self-preservation of society itself; the latent external crisis enables it to get the upper hand in internal crises” - Martin Buber

84. “The world will change when women reclaim their power as the sane, nurturing hands of love, which are ever reaching to cultivate a world of beauty, safety and harmony.” - Bryant McGill

85. “To submit isn’t to be forced. It’s to yield to a force greater than your own, in order to become part of the whole.” - Dianna Hardy

86. “There is a weird power in a spoken word.” - Joseph Conrad

87. “To man has been given the grief, often, of seeing his gods overthrown and his altars crumbling; but to the wolf and the wild dog that have come in to crouch at man's feet, this grief has never come. Unlike man, whose gods are of the unseen and overguessed, vapors and mists of fancy eluding the garmenture of reality, wandering wraiths of desired goodness and power, intangible outcroppings of self into the realm of spirit - unlike man, the wolf and the wild dog that have come into their fire find the gods in the living flesh, solid to the touch, occupying earth-space and requiring time for the accomplishment of their ends and their existence. No effort of faith is necessary to believe in such a god; no effort of will can possibly induce disbelief in such a god. There is no getting away from it. There it stands, on its two hindlegs, club in hand, immensely potential, passionate and wrathful and loving, god and mystery and power all wrapped up and around by flesh that bleeds when it is torn and that is good to eat like any flesh.” - Jack London

88. “National identity acts as a consumer lever to manipulate the emotions of the masses, for the purposes of power regulation and the fulfillment of agenda” - Bryant McGill

89. “You have a power of incalculable value. You need ask nothing of anyone. You need depend on no one. You are free, and that freedom is a gift.” - Cassandra Clare