Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes

The primary object of every elite, or ruling class, is to maintain its own power and privilege.

Only power can get people into a position where they may be noble.

To be free in an age like ours, one must be in a position of authority. That in itself would be enough to make me ambitious.

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent.

Some powerful people who were not emperors, yet were just as powerful as emperors, were followed by an entourage of officials

I was not a queen bee, ever.

On the bright side," Percy said, "both Jason and I outrank you, Octavian. So we can both tell you to shut up.

If you see yourself as a kingly type, then you need your serfs and your army and so on around you.

Authority is not a quality one person 'has', in the sense that he has property or physical qualities. Authority refers to an interpersonal relation in which one person looks upon another as somebody superior to him.

By ancestry, I was born to rule.

I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours.

Power tires only those who do not have it.

People desire power. I don't know why they want it so. It seems to me it implies a hugely superior intellect which separates them from most of the populace.

Sometimes I think the world is divided into those who have a comfortable relationship with power and those who have a naturally adversarial relationship with power.

In the land of the skunks he who has half a nose is king.

Like most animals, we're wired to associate height with power.

I would rather be the tail of a lion than the head of a mouse.

If there are no superior people to look after a population, the common people have no security.

Because I am the supreme authority.

...a blue blood, a snob

No man has received from nature the right to give orders to others.

The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power. The prize of the general is not a bigger tent, but command.

Men love power.

The people who exercise the power are not always the same people over whom it is exercised.

Was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?