Quotes
Quotes about Power
Who ne'er his bread in sorrow ate,
Who ne'er the mournful midnight hours
Weeping upon his bed has sate,
He knows you not, ye Heavenly Powers.
Were half the power that fills the world with terror,
Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts,
Given to redeem the human mind from error,
There were no need of arsenals and forts.
'T is said that absence conquers love;
But oh believe it not!
I've tried, alas! its power to prove,
But thou art not forgot.
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,--
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
Some novel power
Sprang up forever at a touch,
And hope could never hope too much
In watching thee from hour to hour.
My God, I would not live
Save that I think this gross hard-seeming world
Is our misshaping vision of the Powers
Behind the world, that make our griefs our gains.
Say not "a small event!" Why "small"?
Costs it more pain that this ye call
A "great event" should come to pass
From that? Untwine me from the mass
Of deeds which make up life, one deed
Power shall fall short in or exceed!
No night so wild but brings the constant sun
With love and power untold;
No time so dark but through its woof there run
Some blessed threads of gold.
Work, and thou wilt bless the day
Ere the toil be done;
They that work not, can not pray,
Can not feel the sun.
God is living, working still,
All things work and move;
Work, or lose the power to will,
Lose the power to love.
They say that man is mighty,
He governs land and sea;
He wields a mighty scepter
O'er lesser powers that be;
And the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Talent is that which is in a man's power; genius is that in whose power a man is.
Time may restore us in his course
Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force;
But where will Europe's latter hour
Again find Wordsworth's healing power?
Wandering between two worlds,--one dead,
The other powerless to be born.
We, in some unknown Power's employ,
Move on a rigorous line;
Can neither, when we will, enjoy,
Nor, when we will, resign.
The will is free;
Strong is the soul, and wise and beautiful;
The seeds of godlike power are in us still;
Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!
If some great Power would agree to make me always think what is true and do what is right, on condition of being turned into a sort of clock and wound up every morning before I got out of bed, I should instantly close with the offer.
A witty woman is a treasure; a witty beauty is a power.
Love is God's essence; Power but his attribute: therefore is his love greater than his power.
Whence has come thy lasting power.
Praise be to you, O hills, that you can breathe
Into our souls the secret of your power!
Passion is power,
And, kindly tempered, saves. All things declare
Struggle hath deeper peace than sleep can bring.
While Thee I seek, protecting Power,
Be my vain wishes stilled;
And may this consecrated hour
With better hopes be filled.
'T is said that absence conquers love;
But oh believe it not!
I 've tried, alas! its power to prove,
But thou art not forgot.
Of all the gods, Death only craves not gifts:
Nor sacrifice, nor yet drink-offering poured
Avails; no altars hath he, nor is soothed
By hymns of praise. From him alone of all
The powers of heaven Persuasion holds aloof.
Powerful indeed is the empire of habit.
