Quotes
Quotes about Power
f Law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. All things in heaven and earth do her homage,--the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power.
His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for's power to thunder.
O, mickle is the powerful grace that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities:
For nought so vile that on the earth doth live
But to the earth some special good doth give,
Nor aught so good but strain'd from that fair use
Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse;
Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied;
And vice sometimes by action dignified.
It faded on the crowing of the cock.
Some say that ever 'gainst that season comes
Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated,
The bird of dawning singeth all night long:
And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad;
The nights are wholesome; then no planets strike,
No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm,
So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
The devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape.
Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme.
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea,
But sad mortality o'ersways their power,
How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea,
Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, "Behold!"
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'T is mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's,
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
The desire of power in excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowledge in excess caused man to fall.
Knowledge is power.--Nam et ipsa scientia potestas est.
To enlarge or illustrate this power and effect of love is to set a candle in the sun.
The fear of some divine and supreme powers keeps men in obedience.
I am not now in fortune's power:
He that is down can fall no lower.
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers.
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offence returning, to regain
Love once possess'd.
Some say no evil thing that walks by night,
In fog or fire, by lake or moorish fen,
Blue meagre hag, or stubborn unlaid ghost
That breaks his magic chains at curfew time,
No goblin, or swart fairy of the mine,
Hath hurtful power o'er true virginity.
That power
Which erring men call Chance.
His rod revers'd,
And backward mutters of dissevering power.
Sydneian showers
Of sweet discourse, whose powers
Can crown old Winter's head with flowers.
Old as I am, for ladies' love unfit,
The power of beauty I remember yet.
Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
The balance of power.
Grac'd as thou art with all the power of words,
So known, so honour'd at the House of Lords.
The day shall come, that great avenging day
Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay,
When Priam's powers and Priam's self shall fall,
And one prodigious ruin swallow all.
