Tony Benn Quotes

Power should be reserved for weightlifting and boats, and leadership really involves responsibility.

Certainly I shall not be one of those who, having gained power, do not wish to use it.

Power is not a means; it is an end.

It is a great matter to be in authority over others; for authority, if it be rightly used, will make you feared beyond your actual resources.

Politics is activity in relation to power.

The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.

It is not good to have a rule of many.

Well, surely, I am not in charge of South Africa.

You have no power at all if you do not exercise constant power.

Power has to be insecure to be responsive.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

In politics, as in business, leadership is crucial.

Every one, more or less, loves Power, yet those who most wish for it are seldom the fittest to be trusted with it.

Governance is a way of organizing, amplifying, and constraining power.

Great is the hand that holds dominion over man by a scribbled name.

I am the guardian of power, not its owner.

The power to command has never meant the power to remain mysterious.

You must see the persons who are in charge - persons you can punish or vote for.

I’m the constitution around here now.

Rulers come and go; governments end and forms of government change; but sovereignty survives.

Each age must … contend anew with the question of power and accountability.

They who possess the prince possess the laws.

The person who manages the state is me.

Politics is the art of acquiring, holding and wielding power.

History, in general, only informs us what bad government is.