CURATED COLLECTION

How Power Corrupts

The corrupting logic of power has been diagnosed for centuries — and it keeps working the same way.

50 quotes found

“
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.

—Alice WalkerNovelist, Poet & Activist

Late Modern ERA • North America

“
Power is a thing that corrupts not only the man, but his humanity.

—Wole SoyinkaPlaywright, Poet & Novelist

Post-War ERA • West Africa

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It is not power that corrupts, but fear.

—Aung San Suu KyiPolitician

Late Modern ERA • Southeast Asia

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A man who has the power to act and will not, is not a man.

—ThucydidesGeneral & Historian

Ancient World ERA • Southern Europe

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My work is about power. Who has it, who doesn't, and how it's represented.

—Kehinde WileyArtist

Digital Age ERA • North America

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No power can stop an idea whose time has come.

—Victor HugoPoet, Novelist & Dramatist

Industrial Age ERA • Western Europe

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The only way to erect such a common power is to confer all their power upon one man.

—Thomas HobbesPhilosopher

Renaissance ERA • Western Europe

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Language is not a neutral instrument. It is a stake and a weapon in struggles for power.

—Pierre BourdieuSociologist

Late Modern ERA • Western Europe

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I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves.

—Mary WollstonecraftWriter, Philosopher & Feminist

Enlightenment ERA • Western Europe

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History is what the people in power choose to remember.

—Esi EdugyanNovelist

Digital Age ERA • North America

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Perhaps it is impossible for a person who does not have a slave to understand the power of the institution.

—Harriet Beecher StoweAbolitionist & Author

Industrial Age ERA • North America

“
Language is power, but silence, sometimes, speaks volumes more than words ever could.

—R. Zamora LinmarkNovelist & Poet

Contemporary ERA • Southeast Asia

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The archive is not simply a place of storage, but also a site of power.

—Achille MbembePhilosopher & Theorist

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

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Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in defense of tyranny and oppression.

—Malcolm XActivist & Minister

Post-War ERA • North America

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If you find an opponent, a man of power who is your superior, bow.

—PtahhotepPharaoh

Pre-Ancient ERA • North Africa

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We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.

—Ursula K. Le GuinAuthor

Digital Age ERA • North America

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Our power comes from the spirit realm, beyond what human eyes can see.

—PapahurihiaProphet

Industrial Age ERA • Oceania

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Power only serves to separate people. Power without justice is a machine of isolation.

—Eduardo GaleanoJournalist & Author

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

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Cruelty is power's most comprehensible language.

—Griselda GambaroPlaywright & Novelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

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Fear of women's power is a universal phenomenon.

—Fatima MernissiFeminist, Sociologist & Author

Post-War ERA • North Africa

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