Power & Society Sayings

The future of man is not in the stars but in the control of his own behavior.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

I am looking for a man.

The commonwealth of Utopia is governed by very few laws; and these are so plain, that every man may understand them.

The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.

When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.

Justice without force is powerless; force without justice is tyrannical.

What the government wants is slaves.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

All punishment is mischief; all punishment in itself is evil.

The metropolis, which is the seat of the money economy, is the place of this highest development of individuality.

A crime is a crime because it is punished; it is not punished because it is a crime.

And in what business is there not humbug?

Democracy is the best revenge.

A text is not a text unless it hides from the first comer, from the first glance, the law of its composition and the rules of its game.

Systematically distorted communication is a form of power.

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

My chief task has been to conquer fear.

You know how to win a victory, Hannibal, but not how to use one.

I demand the hand of Honoria and half the Western Empire as her dowry.