Thomas Sankara Quotes

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

The concept of power we admire is power over someone else.

We lead them to believe that we are in complete control over every aspect of their lives.

Power over a man's support is a power over his will.

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

You can maintain power over people, as long as you give them something. Rob a man of everything, and that man will no longer be in your power.

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

You carry forever the fingerprint that comes from being under someone's thumb.

Domination delegates the physical violence on which it rests to the dominated.

Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.

I'd rather control someone than be controlled.

I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

Once a person insists on how you are to think he immediately begins to insist on how you are to behave.

If you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

I think the greatest lesson that power has to teach us is, once you've had it, once you are a part of it, you're never free.

The fear tactic is a tactic that's used by people who want to maintain control, and it's very effective.

Headline writers love the phrase 'Power Grab,' but you can't really grab it, can you? Power is a greased watermelon, a wisp of smoke, difficult to grasp, harder to hold, impossible to control while getting both feet down in bounds.

It's easier to control people when they're afraid.

I have discovered that a famed familiarity in great ones is a note of certain usurpation on the less; for great and popular men feign themselves to be servants to others to make those slaves to them.

Choices always were a problem for you. What you need is someone strong to guide you. Deaf and blind and dumb and born to follow, what you need is someone strong to use you - like me.

As our power over others increases, we become less free; for to retain it, we must make ourselves its servants.

Some forms of truth are really forms of social power and oppression.

Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want.

I can frighten or buy ninety-nine out of every one hundred men.

I'm tempting you with fine gifts until your girlish ideals are quite worn away and you are at my mercy.