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Power Struggle Quotes

Browse 67 quotes about Power Struggle.

Power Struggle Quotes

“Doubtless Princess Juliana intended for me to overhear her comment on seeing Theodora in wedding regalia. “She’s like wisteria: beautiful in a vulgarly decorative way, cloyingly scented and an unstoppable climber.” Her eyes met mine and she made a motion as if scribbling in the air, daring me to write down her words.”

HeartConflictDeterminationHistoricalAncientDisputesHistorical RomanceEmperorPower StruggleBurlesque
Book:The Eagle and the Swan
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“Where Storms Nest by Stewart Stafford Time's arrow has left its quiver, And mortal men denied a sliver, Of sweet-faced solace or settled debt, Surrendering all to sweeping death. Beware the vixen with the perished pup, Of merciless slight and sacrilegious sup, Of mother's milk and witches' brew, Curdling infamy and death's-head stew. The trap is sprung, the rider unseated, A mourning procession for the defeated, A great wrong sits on the anointed throne, She is Queen Bee and you, but a drone. From a spider's web veil, she does regard, Hateful glances from black heart's shard, Envenomed nature of poisonous Man, The scorpion's strike of a foul plan. After seeking power and blood and lust, Remorse a late guest to a dagger's thrust, The vulture shrieks to the globe's outer rim, That Man's ambition is a Hell to him. © Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”

PoetryPowerPoemAmbitionMurderRemorseRoyaltyBloodshedPower StruggleTryanny
Author:Stewart Stafford
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“Shayna lunged and swiped her sword just inches from Brigara's face. Brigara instinctively reacted by raising both hands to block the blade. The Book of Grimoire dropped to the floor. Brigara's eyes narrowed as she became aware that she'd been caught off guard. She scanned the room quickly, and her lips tightened as she returned her glare to meet Shayna's tear-filled eyes. Shayna's hands trembled, and the sword felt heavier than usual. She teetered slightly and blinked hard. Her heart was beating double time and ached in her chest. She gulped and told herself to stay steady. She struggled against the impulse that beckoned her to end the despised druid's life. "You killed Dreya! You're a miserable piece of trash!" Shayna shouted. Her mouth was dry, and she strained to fight back tears, but they spilled over. She repositioned her sword and aimed it at Brigara’s heart.”

SacrificeUnityBetrayalAlliesMysticalPower StruggleEpic BattleAncient MagicEnchanted RealmsHidden Powers
Book:Crossroads and the Dominion of Four
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“He (George Washington) saw those dangers to good government without even exposure to today’s runaway election expenses. For the presidency alone, what is more wasteful than the multimillions of dollars raised and spent for presidential primaries? All evidence is that today, the true best and brightest of our potential national leaders have no appetite for entering into the long, long months of primaries, raising and spending those multimillions, exhausting all that money and themselves, getting their careers dissected and maligned. Then, the “lucky” winner emerging in the fall is usually so smeared by his primary rivals that the other party simply has to raise a few reminders of what a candidate’s own party “friends” had said about him or her. Hell of a system, after more than 230 years of the evolution of our democracy.”

American PoliticsPresidential ElectionPower Struggle
Book:The Power of Negative Thinking: An Unconventional Approach to Achieving Positive Results
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“In the center of the movement, as the motor that swings it onto motion, sits the Leader. He is separated from the elite formation by an inner circle of the initiated who spread around him an aura of impenetrable mystery which corresponds to his “intangible preponderance.” His position within this intimate circle depends upon his ability to spin intrigues among its members and upon his skill in constantly changing its personnel. He owes his rise to leadership to an extreme ability to handle inner-party struggles for power rather than to demagogic or bureaucratic-organizational qualities. He is distinguished from earlier types of dictators in that he hardly wins through simple violence. Hitler needed neither the SA nor the SS to secure his position as leader of the Nazi movement; on the contrary, Röhm, the chief of the SA and able to count upon its loyalty to his own person, was one of Hitler’s inner-party enemies. Stalin won against Trotsky, who not only had a far greater mass appeal but, as chief of the Red Army, held in his hands the greatest power potential in Soviet Russia at the time. Not Stalin, but Trotsky, moreover, was the greatest organizational talent, the ablest bureaucrat of the Russian Revolution. On the other hand, both Hitler and Stalin were masters of detail and devoted themselves in the early stages of their careers almost entirely to questions of personnel, so that after a few years hardly any man of importance remained who did not owe his position to them.”

LeaderTotalitarianismHitlerPower StruggleStalinLeadership QualitiesTrotsky1966
Book:The Origins of Totalitarianism
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“I know how easy it was,' said Lemoine. Mira didn't follow. How easy what was?' All of it,' he said, shrugging. Getting rich. Staying ich. Winning. It was all so easy. I just took what I wanted, and it was mine. I said what I wanted, and people got it for me. I did what I wanted, and nobody stopped me. So simple. And if it was easy for me, then it could be easy for anybody, and that’s a very frightening thought. Apart from anything else, it would be untenable, Everyone can't be on top, or it wouldn't be the top any more, would it? That's just a fact. And I've been in the citadels of power,' he added. I've eaten at the high tables; I've seen behind the doors that never open. Everyone's the same. You reach a certain level and it's all exactly the same: it's all just luck and loopholes and being in the right place at the right time, and compound growth taking care of the rest. That's why we're all building barricades. It's in case the rest of you ever figure out how incredibly easy it was for us to get to where we are. Jesus,' Mira said. "That's fucking dark”

PowerPower Struggle
Book:Birnam Wood
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“How does one go on after doing such unspeakable things? It's all rather simple, really," he continued, speaking in someone else's voice. "Say to yourself, 'What things?' And it becomes clear...you are blameless. They brought it on themselves. What have they ever done for you except control your life? They tore you away from your sister; they ripped you from your home. Did you ask to be saved? No! Forget them and start over...with us, your true family, my Corcitura, my own.”

VampiresMenacePower StruggleCorcituraHybrid VampiresVladec SaleiInterior Struggle
Book:Corcitura
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“Now that we have tons of autobiographical testimony and interviews and archive documents and, most important, now that we can see with our own eyes the "reformers of the 190s" transmogrified into Putin's lickspittles, propagandists, oligarchs, and bureaucrats, and all of them extremely rich, we should be honest, repudiating hypocrisy and any attempt to justify ourselves for our wasted years. We should admit that there never were any democrats in power in Russia, in the sense of people with a genuinely liberal, democratic outlook. And the main narrative of our recent past, the confrontation between "democrats" and Soviet conservatives, never happened either. "What do you mean, never happened? I was part of it!" Even I want to protest in response to such a radical, or naive, or wicked assertion. But it is only too obvious that it never happened, at least not in the way those involved in the events portray it. There was an objective historical process. There was the U.S.S.R., ideologically, economically, and morally bankrupt. There was a conflict between elites, in which one faction, in order to sweep away senile dotards, tricked itself out in more popular colors, those of "democrats and supporters of a market economy." With that slogan it seized power. Well, isn't that just the way of the world? Are you going to accept that one section of the elite came up with new slogans and won, or are you going to go around with a liberalometer checking everybody's ideological purity to find out who most believed in what they were saying and who was less than sincere? Actually, a device of that description would have been very helpful, and the lack of one is exactly why nothing worked out "like in America" or, for that matter, in the Czech Republic. In the countries of the Soviet bloc, those opposing the conservatives, socialists, dodderers, idiots, and saboteurs had as their leaders (or just playing a crucial role) people of the stature of Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel. They had stood their ground in the face of oppression and persecution, and over many years had shown in action a genuine commitment to the words they proclaimed from the podium. In Russia everything was different. The chief "radical democrat" was Boris Yeltisn. I was born in 1976, at which time Yeltisn was the first secretary of the Sverdlovsk regional committee of the CPSU. That is, he was the governor of the largest industrial region in the Urals with powers that were far in excess of today's governors. There he behaved like a typical Soviet petty tyrant, and just as in the mid-1970s he would climb into his official black car, live in his officially provided apartment, and acquire his official elite dacha, so until his death that is the lifestyle he and his family took for granted. He belonged body and soul to the Soviet party establishment, and what little he knew about the life of the "common people" he gleaned from his chauffeurs and servants.”

DemocracyLiberalismPower StruggleDemocrats And Conservatives
Book:Patriot: A Memoir
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“Prostitution is not just a service industry, mopping up the overflow of male demand, which always exceeds female supply. Prostitution testifies to the amoral power struggle of sex, which religion has never been able to stop. Prostitutes, pornographers, and their patrons are marauders in the forest of archaic night.”

AbleNightSexStruggleIndustryDemandFemaleMalesForestsExceedProstitutionPatronOverflowPower StruggleAmoralityService IndustryTestifyingMoppingMopping Up
Book:Sexual Personae
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“Over the last half century the television interview has given us some of TV's most heart-stopping and memorable moments. On the surface it is a simple format - two people sitting across from one another having a conversation. But underneath it is often a power struggle - a battle for the psychological advantage.”

PeopleHeartTwoMomentsLastsGivenSimpleHalfStruggleCenturyTelevisionTvsBattleConversationSittingAdvantageSurfacePsychologicalMemorableInterviewsStoppingFormatPower StruggleMemorable Moments
Author:David Frost
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“Life, from beginning to end, is fear. Yes, it is pain, yes, it is desire, but more than anything it is fear; a certain amount rational, an enormous amount irrational. All political cruelties stem from that overwhelming fear. To push back the threatening forces, to offer primitive sacrifices, to give up some in the hope that others will be savedthat is the power struggle. That is the outsidedness of the poor, the feeble, the infantile. That is the outsidedness of Jews. That is the outsidedness of blacks. That is the outsidedness of women.”

GivingEndsPainPoliticalDesireCertainPoliticsForceFearPoorStruggleSacrificeAmountOffersGiving UpJewEnormousDiscriminationRationalCrueltyOverwhelmingPrimitiveIrrationalStemThreateningInfantilePower Struggle
Author:Vivian Gornick
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“I believe a family can be like that sports team. A successful family wins as a team. But if its members are intent upon winning their own individual battles with one another, the team loses. A winning solution is to work out the differences and, when it's over, let it be over. Then they can get back in the game as a team.”

IfsBelieveGamesWinningIndividualI BelieveSportsLosesDifferencesSuccessfulTeamBattleMembersSolutionsWork OutGet BackSports TeamPower StruggleBack In The Game
Author:Steve Goodier
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“Under the current U.S. policy, because of this power struggle, American oil companies can't do business with Iran. So I think the ultimate goal of the U.S. administration in Iran is regime change, to put into power a pro-Western government that will eliminate the strategic challenge to U.S. interests and, at the same time, allow the lifting of sanctions and allowing American oil companies to do business with Iran.”

ThinkingGovernmentGoalInterestChallengesCompanyStrugglePolicyUltimateWesternCurrentsOilAdministrationIranAllowingRegimesStrategicLiftingSanctionsUltimate GoalOil CompaniesPower StruggleRegime Change
Author:Michael Klare
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“People who reject transcendent authority can no longer persuade one another through rational arguments; everything is reduced to personal opinion. Debates about ideas thus degenerate into power struggles; we're left with no moral standard by which to measure the common good. For that matter, how can there be a 'common good' without an objective standard of truth?”

PeopleIdeasMatterLeftCommonMoralOpinionStruggleAuthorityStandardsArgumentDebateObjectivesRationalRejectsTranscendentCommon GoodDegeneratesPower StrugglePersonal Opinions
Book:The Sky Is Not Falling: Living Feaerlessly in These Turbulent Times
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“If one is going to offer children stories that underneath the story must be something that will inform, stimulate and guide, I love to be on board. I think anything that resonates with history, as does The Jungle Book and Watership Down, reflects patterns of behavior, power struggles, deprivation, migration, survival, joy, love, betrayal, and all of these things. It's tragic that children are encouraged to ignore history. We ignore history and any literature that is historically based in history. Even though both of those films involved animals, of course they reflect human behavior.”

ThinkingChildrenBookFilmJoyLiteratureLove IsAnimalStruggleBehaviorSurvivalBetrayalTragicHuman BehaviorJunglePower Struggle
Author:Ben Kingsley
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“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”

IfsMenWantInspirationalGivingCharacterWisdomHumorCommunityLeadershipFreedomLeaderPowerPersonalityWise WordsPoliticianWords Of WisdomIntegrityTestsAdversityIntelligenceLawyerCleverHard TimesPatrioticHardshipTough TimesOvercoming AdversityCharacter BuildingInspiring LeaderGreat LeadershipLeadership By Famous LeadersAbsolute PowerInspirational MilitaryPower CorruptsPower And ControlCall Of DutyGreatest LeadershipIntegrity And CharacterIntegrity CharacterHonor And IntegrityPower StruggleBuilding CharacterYour HonorMan Of IntegrityMilitary LeaderSales LeadershipLeadership IntegrityAdversity And CharacterCharacter And ReputationInspirational CharacterCharacter Of A ManMilitary LeadershipToo Much PowerCharacter FlawsAbramEthics And IntegrityStrong LeadersPower GovernmentPower PoliticsPersonal CharacterCorrupt PowerWise LeadersPower ManControlling PowerCharacter ChangeTest Of CharacterDesire For PowerHouse DividedPersonality And CharacterWeakness Of CharacterPresidential Power
Author:Abraham Lincoln
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“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”

LifeInspirationalWritingMotivationalFearWomenGrowthNatureChangeChanceCourageStruggleGrowingRiskAdventurePainfulStrong WomenVolunteerBad AssTake A ChanceBudBeing A WomanOf My MindSimple LivingTaking RisksRisk ItRisk-takingLife StruggleLife Is An AdventureInspirational Strong WomenBlossomingGreat RiskTime Of My LifeLife AdventureLife Is A JourneyAdventure And LifeGrowing PainsI Am WomanRisk And FailureRisks In LifePower StruggleStrong InspirationalScribblesLiving A Simple LifeRisking Your LifeAdventurous LifeMind HeartLife Is A StruggleGreat RewardRisk And SuccessLight Of My LifeRisking Your HeartHeal A Broken HeartAdventure And RiskPainful TimesPainful Life
Author:Anais Nin
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“Have you ever felt so at one with the world, with the universe, with everything that is, that you were overcome with love? That is reality. That is the truth. What we make of it is up to us, as the painting of the sunrise is up to the artist. In our world humanity has strayed from that love. It lives hatred and power struggles and manipulations of the earth itself for its own narrow reasons. Continue and no one will see the sunrise. The sunrise will always exist, of course, but people on earth will know nothing of it and finally even stories of its beauty will fade from our knowing.”

PeopleKnowsWorldReasonStoriesRealityEarthArtistHumanityUniverseCoursesFeltStruggleKnowingPaintingHatredOvercomingManipulationOur WorldFadesSunrisePower Struggle
Author:Richard Bach
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“It shouldn't be easy to be amazing. Then everything would be. It's the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth. When something's difficult to come by, you'll do that much more to make sure it's even harder ― or impossible ― to lose.”

Would BeFightingEasyDifficultLosesAbilityStruggleImpossibleHarderEarningLife StrugglePower StruggleAlong For The RideLife Is A StruggleObstacle In Life
Book:Along for the Ride
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“From the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to American politics--the name of Jesus had been hijacked as an ally in all kinds of power struggles. Since the beginning of time, the ignorant had always screamed the loudest, herding the unsuspecting masses and forcing them to do their bidding. They defended their worldly desires by citing Scripture they did not understand. They celebrated their intolerance as proof of their convictions. Now, after all these years, mankind had finally managed to utterly erode everything that had once been so beautiful about Jesus.”

YearsKindBeautifulDesireJesusNamesStruggleMankindMassConvictionProofScriptureIgnorantAll KindsAlliesIntoleranceWorldlyAmerican PoliticsCrusadesInquisitionCitingBiddingErodePower StruggleUnsuspectingWorldly Desires
Author:Dan Brown
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