Simone de Beauvoir Quotes

I call the discourse of power any discourse that engenders blame, hence guilt, in its recipient.

My instincts are always against people who want to fasten some sort of hegemony onto things.

Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power.

You don't realize it, but often people are frightened of the director.

Every reign must submit to a greater reign.

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.

Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority!

If you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.

Each new power won by man is a power over man as well.

People who bear the brunt of dominant economic and military power have always resented, even hated, the subordination they experience while admiring grudgingly the institutions that sustain the subordination.

The exercise of authority is odious, and they who know how to govern, leave it in abeyance as much as possible.

The effect of dominance is not always the result of an intention to dominate.

The man molds the idol and then the idol molds the man.

Today, idols are not made of wood, stone, or brass. They are made of money, sex, and power.

When we do not adore God, we adore something else. Money and power are false idols which often take the place of God.

Action men are the unvoluntary slaves of wise men.

Perhaps the greatest consolation of the oppressed is to consider themselves superior to their tyrants.

Sex, drugs, money, power etc. Just because you get to choose your master doesn't mean you aren't a slave.

We are no longer citizens, we no longer have leaders. We're subjects, and we have rulers.

You keep folks so intimidated. You can give them money, access, but they're still scared. And as long as you're scared, you're on the plantation.

Who owns a man, Durnik?” the blond young man asked sadly. “The one who rules him, or the one who pays him?

Harassment is about power---the undue exercise of power by a superior over a subordinate.

Fame, power, and gold, are loved for their own sakes - are worshipped with a blind, habitual idolatry.

We are, on the whole, an idolatrous people...