Isaac D'Israeli Quotes

You can use a biography to examine political power, but only if you pick the right guy.

There is all of this protesting against corporate power, but in reality, corporations have to persuade you - they could have a ton of money, but actually only government can use force.

The Chinese state is constructed in an entirely different way from western states. Unlike European states, for over a millennium the Chinese state has not been obliged to compete for power with rivals such as the church, the aristocracy or merchants.

If I bring up political power, personal power, it sounds like they're my terms, and they're not.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.

I never wanted to do biography just to tell the life of a famous man. I always wanted to use the life of a man to examine political power, because democracy shapes our lives.

It is very difficult to get legislation passed. But then the danger always is that you have no power at all if you do not exercise constant power.

With the rise of America, the global balance of power shifted away from the old European powers.

The reality is that politicians, in terms of the amount of power they wield and the amount that they work, don't actually make that much money.

Politics means striving to share power or striving to influence the distribution of power, either among states or among groups within a state.

The career of politics grants a feeling of power. The knowledge of influencing men, of participating in power over them, and above all, the feeling of holding in one's hands a nerve fiber of historically important events can elevate the professional politician above everyday routine even when he is placed in formally modest positions.

All governments, without exception, are stable only insofar as they can effectively reward and punish.

Weak countries always exaggerate their power.

Government power, juxtaposed to private power, is a balance.

The power of the crown, almost dead and rotten as prerogative, has grown up anew, with much more strength and far less odium, under the name of influence.

Hegemony mean[t] that [Athens] organized and directed their combined efforts without securing permanent political power over the other[s].

Too frequent or too quick a resort to force can also undermine the authority of power. Not all use of force is created equal. Other states will grant authority to the use of force, implicitly if not otherwise, if it falls within the bonds of justice and reason; if they think a use of force does not fall within such bonds, they will withdraw their legitimate consent, and thereby undermine the authority of power.

In the struggle for power, propaganda is an instrument to be used by those who want to secure or retain power just as much as it is by those wanting to displace them.

No man ever exercised less influence in the Senate or the House of Representatives than he, but no man ever exercised more power as a political leader.

America has been dominant in the last 200 years, China has been dominant in 1800 of the last 2000 years.

The leaders of a party, or those who are so called, have but little sway over their followers, particularly when not in Government, and when they have it not in their power to threaten them with any very serious consequences

In politics if the people give you popularity, the other politicians observe and give you power.

Power is the true reserve currency in international affairs.

Grand strategies are not nearly so important as grand strategists like to think, because countries tend to be judged by their actions, not on their words…. History shows that grand strategies do not alter the trajectory of great power politics all that much.