Patrick Ness Quotes

We have all, at one time or another, been performers, and many of us still are - politicians, playboys, cardinals and kings.

Whenever anybody is pursuing power, he's got to be funny.

If Advaniji did not want, I would never have been Prime Minister.

The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.

That's not to say Eddie's never done anything malicious. But he never grabbed power for power's sake. His position was gained only because he has that energy, and that's naturally where he ended up.

Well, I have an interest in power. I have an interest in people who find themselves in the position to exercise absolute power.

In the sense that you're not at the centre of power, like a president or prime minister of a major power, everyone is marginalised; my position doesn't isn't unique in that respect. I think there are different sorts of relevance in different contexts.

We have, I fear, confused power with greatness.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

I consider myself a persuasive person. With the ability to persuade comes a certain level of power.

I very much wanted to be editor of the 'New Statesman!' But I never wanted to be prime minister, except maybe as a little boy.

I don't seek power and do not run around.

I've been dealing with politicians all my life. All my life. And I've always gotten them to do what I need them to do.

Our public figures are often narcissists, utterly self-absorbed in their quest for power.

He was always testing you. He was always testing his power.

I'm interested in power.

I can make men follow me to hell.

I have only to raise a finger and the whole face of Europe is changed.

Politics. The art of governing mankind by deceiving them.

A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion.

Where power is concerned, the theater enters.

Anyone who gets to the top in politics is a control freak.

Political ambition, like other kinds of ambition, is a basic human appetite …. Like other human appetites, ambition is not evenly distributed among the population, but enough people with substantial political ambition are naturally drawn to political careers to make the problem of controlling it a major aspect of constitutional government.

Conkling -- the power behind the throne, superior to the throne.

Politics determine who has the power, not who has the truth.