There is a difference between power over others and power over yourself.
Your personal power is greater than any public power you may covet.
Your personal power gives you the strength to do the impossible. It makes you invincible in the face of overwhelming odds.
Public power is fleeting. Once abused, it cannot be easily recovered.
In your presence, people will bow to the brute power you have over them.
In private, they will sneer behind your back.
Personal power, wisely wielded, garners respect, friendship, self-love, and the love of others.
Public power, abysmally abused, garners loathing, false friends, and distrust.
You have power.
You were born with it. Use it wisely.
Quotes About Power
You have a treasure within you that is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer. ~ Eckhart Tolle
Wherever men have been entrusted with an unlimited power, they have never failed to abuse it. ~ Thomas Day
The man is very much mistaken who fancies that that power which is founded on force, is more firm and stable than that which is built on friendship. ~ Terence (Publius Terentius Afer)
All human power is a compound of time and patience. ~ Honoré de Balzac
Powerful beings will and wait. ~ Honoré de Balzac
For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit. ~ Noam Chomsky
We never ought to allow any growing power to acquire such a degree of strength as to be able to tear from us, without resistance, our natural, undisputed rights. ~ Polybius
...there is no stronger test of a man’s real character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice. ~ Plutarch
Power, unless managed with gentleness and discretion, does but make a man the more hated; no intervals of good-humor, no starts of bounty, will atone for tyranny and oppression. ~ Jeremy Collier
Deep within man dwells slumbering powers; powers that would astonish him...that would revolutionize his life if aroused and put into action. ~ Orison S. Marden
The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse. ~ Edmund Burke
How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
You cannot produce the great man before his time. ~ Victor Cousin
We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. ~ George Orwell
Power is not means, it is an end. ~ George Orwell
The object of power is power. ~ George Orwell
That man, the unsubmissive and first, stands in the opening chapter of every legend mankind has recorded about its beginning. ~ Ayn Rand
When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. ~ Lao Tzu
You have more capability than you think you do but you will never see it unless you place a demand on yourself for more. ~ Joyce Meyer
A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles. ~ Christopher Reeve
He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress. ~ Anwar Sadat
Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy. ~ Wayne Dyer
To stand up straight with your shoulders back is to accept the terrible responsibility of life, with eyes wide open. ~ Jordan B. Peterson
All power is derived from the people. ~ George Mason
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent than the one derived from fear of punishment. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. ~ Elie Wiesel
It is not within man’s power to make power lasting; after death your influence is only memory. ~ Edward Counsel
The power that is not built on truth can never be considered enduring. ~ Edward Counsel
The devil hath power to assume a pleasing shape. ~ William Shakespeare
What is power? Power is the sum total of wills transferred to one person. ~ Leo Tolstoy
Power is a word the meaning of which we do not understand. ~ Leo Tolstoy
There are only two powers in the world, the sword and the pen; and in the end the former is always conquered by the latter. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte
We have, I fear, confused power with greatness. ~ Stewart L. Udall
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. ~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Knowledge itself is power. ~ Francis Bacon
No human being ever learns to live until he has awakened to the dormant powers within him. ~ William James
True power is within, and it is available to you now. ~ Eckhart Tolle
When we have to face danger, then courage comes; when trial puts a long-continued strain upon us, we find ourselves possessed by the power to endure. ~ J. A. Hadfield
Recognizing power in another does not diminish your own. ~ Joss Whedon
The power of words is immense. A well-chosen word has often sufficed to stop a flying army, to change defeat into victory and to save an empire. ~ Emile de Girardin
Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be. ~ Alice Walker
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, these three alone lead life to sovereign power. ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson
The new source of power is not money in the hands of a few, but information in the heads of many. ~ John Naisbitt
The steps of power are often steps on sand. ~ Edward Counsel
You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair. ~ Anonymous
Those who wish to sing, always find a song. ~ Anonymous
Knowing others is intelligence. Knowing yourself is true wisdom. ~ Lao Tzu
Mastering others is strength. Mastering yourself is true power. ~ Lao Tzu
You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. ~ Marcus Aurelius
Your greatest power is to show love, to receive love and to be love. ~ Oprah Winfrey
Part of the mythology that they’ve been teaching you is that you have no power. Power is not brute force and money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. ~ Winona LaDuke