Home › P › Power
Power: Quotations from Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations
Give me a lever long enough And a prop strong enough, I can single handed move the world.
'Tis true no lover has that pow'r T' enforce a desperate amour, As he that has two strings t' his bow, And burns for love and money too. Canto I.— BUTLER — Hudibras. Pt. III. L. 1.
Dim with the mist of years, gray flits the shade of power.— BYRON — Childe Harold. Canto II. St. 2.
Men are never very wise and select in the exercise of a new power.— WM. ELLERY CHANNING — The Present
Age. An Address. 1841. To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who are seeking it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.— C. C. COLTON — Lacon. P. 255.
So mightiest powers by deepest calms are fed, And sleep, how oft, in things that gentlest be!— BARRY CORNWALL — Songs. The Sea in Calm. L. 13.
For what can power give more than food and drink, To live at ease, and not be bound to think?— DRYDEN — Medal. L. 235.
She knows her man, and when you rant and swear, Can draw you to her with a single hair.— DRYDEN — Persius. Satire V. L. 246.
Patience and Gentleness is Power.— LEIGH HUNT — Sonnet. On a Lock of
Milton's Hair. Without his rod revers'd, And backward mutters of dissevering power.— MILTON — Comus. L. 816.
And deal damnation round the land.— POPE — The Universal Prayer. St. 7.
No pent-up Utica contracts your powers, But the whole boundless continent is yours.— JONATHON SEWALL — Epilogue to
ADDISON'S Cato. The devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape.— Shakespeare — Hamlet. Act II. Sc. 2. L. 628.
Power, like a desolating pestilence, Pollutes whate'er it touches; and obedience, Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth, Makes slaves of men, and of the human frame A mechanized automaton.— SHELLEY — Queen Mab. Pt. III.
The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats, tho' unseen, amongst us.— SHELLEY — Hymn to Intellectual Beauty.
The omnipotence of God shines forth from the universe.— SWEDENBORG — Apocalypse Explained.
The balance of power. Par.— SIR ROBT. WALPOLE — Speech. 1741.
Because the good old rule Sufficeth them, the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can.— WORDSWORTH — Rob Roy's Grave.
The intellectual power, though words and things, Went sounding on, a dim and perilous way!— WORDSWORTH — The Excursion. Bk. III.
Who murders Time, he crushes in the birth a power ethereal.— YOUNG — Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 110.
Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator. The traveler without money will sing before the robber.— JUVENAL — Satiræ. X. 22.
Cum furor haud dubius, cum sit manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris, egentis vivere fato. It is unmistakable madness to live in poverty only to die rich.— JUVENAL — Satira. XIV. 136.
Haud facile emergunt quorum virtutibus obstat Res angusta domi. They do not easily rise whose abilities are repressed by poverty at home.— JUVENAL — Satiræ. III. 164.
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se Quam quod ridiculos homines facit. Cheerless poverty has no harder trial than this, that it makes men the subject of ridicule.— JUVENAL — Satiræ. III. 152.
Paupertas fugitur, totoque arcessitur orbe. Poverty is shunned and persecuted all over the globe.— LUCAN — Pharsalia. I. 166.
Non est paupertas, Nestor, habere nihil. To have nothing is not poverty.— MARTIAL — Epigrammata. XI. 32. 8.
Inops, potentem dum vult imitari, perit. The poor trying to imitate the powerful, perish.— PHEDRUS — Fabulæ. I. 24. 1.
In principatu commutando civium Nil præter domini nomen mutant pauperes. In a change of government the poor change nothing but the name of their masters.— PHÆDRUS — Fabulæ. I. 15. 1.
Non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est. Not he who has little, but he who wishes for more, is poor. น.— SENECA — Epistolæ Ad Lucilium. II.
Fit in dominatu servitus, in servitute dominatus. He is sometimes slave who should be master; and sometimes master who should be slave.— CICERO — Oratio Pro Rege Deiotaro. XI.
Et qui nolunt occidere quemquam Posse volunt. Those who do not wish to kill any one, wish they had the power.— JUVENAL — Satire. X. 96.
A cane non magno sæpe tenetur aper. The wild boar is often held by a small dog.— OVID — Remedia Amoris. 422.
Ut desint vires tamen est laudanda voluntas. Though the power be wanting, yet the wish is praiseworthy.— OVID — Epistolæ Ex Ponto. III. 4. 79.
Minimum decet liberè cui multum licet. He who has great power should use it lightly. C.— SENECA — Troades. 336.
Quod non potest vult posse, qui nimium potest. He who is too powerful, is still aiming at that degree of power which is unattainable.— SENECA — Hippolytus. 215.
Malè imperando summum imperium amittitur. The highest power may be lost by misrule.— SYRUS — Maxims.
Cupido dominandi cunctis affectibus flagrantior est. Lust of power is the most flagrant of all the passions.— TACITUS — Annales. XV. 53.
Imperium cupientibus nihil medium inter summa et præcipitia. In the struggle between those seeking power there is no middle course.— TACITUS — Annales. II. 74.
Imperium flagitio acquisitum nemo unquam bonis artibus exercuit. Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.— TACITUS — Annales. I. 30.
Potentiam cautis quam acribus consiliis tutius haberi. Power is more safely retained by cautious than by severe councils.— TACITUS — Annales. XI. 29.
Suspectum semper invisumque dominantibus qui proximus destinaretur. Rulers always hate and suspect the next in succession.— TACITUS — Annales. I. 21.
Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo. If I can not influence the gods, I shall move all hell.— VIRGIL — Eneid. VII. 312.
Possunt quia posse videntur. They are able because they think they are able.— VIRGIL — Eneid. V. 231.
Le seigneur Jupiter sait dorer la pilule. My lord Jupiter knows how to gild the pill.— MOLIÈRE — Amphitryon. III. 11.
Le trident de Neptune est le sceptre du monde. The trident of Neptune is the sceptre of the world.— LEMIERRE
Qui peut ce qui lui plaît, commande alors qu'il prie. Whoever can do as he pleases, commands when he entreats.— CORNEILLE — Sertorius. IV. 2.
Der Mensch kann was er soll; und wenn er sagt, er kann nicht so will er nicht. A man can do what he ought to do; and when he says he cannot, it is because he will not.— FICHTE — Letter. 1791.
Du bist noch nicht der Mann den Teufel festzuhalten. Neither art thou the man to catch the fiend and hold him!— GOETHE — Faust. I. 3. 336.
(ch fühle eine Armee in meiner Faust. I feel an army in my fist.— SCHILLER — Die Räuber. II. 3.
Kann ich Armeen aus der Erde stampfen? Wächst mir ein Kornfeld in der flachen Hand? Can I summon armies from the earth? Or grow a cornfield on my open palm?— SCHILLER — Die Jungfrau von Orleans.