Tom Peters Quotes

To govern men, you must either excel them in their accomplishments, or despise them.

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.

What is 'power' anyway? Power is an ego trip. Power is a way to rise yourself up by lowering others, and I want nothing of it.

If you get to thinking you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around.

People with real power never fear of losing it. People with control think of little else.

Power is not a means; it is an end.

Power is not something that can be assumed or discarded at will like underwear.

I used to pull rank and wait until the wind was blowing out.

When you're interviewing someone, you're in control. When you're being interviewed, you think you're in control, but you're not.

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

Bishops and judges are some of the best politicians in the world. They know how to manipulate the political process.

To some people, power is a noun. To others, it's a verb.

In politics, as in business, leadership is crucial.

I like power and I like to use it.

What I'd really like to control is not machines, but people.

I don't care who does the electing, so long as I get to do the nominating.

Whatever my aims and agendas were, I never asked for power.

We had the controlling shares but we weren’t in control.

Politics is the art of dominating men.

In conspiracies, men who know what they wanted commonly ended by controlling the men who did not.

I do understand power, whatever else may be said about me. I know where to look for it and how to use it.

Power is insinuating. Few men are satisfied with less power than they are able to procure.

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

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

Power is a very peculiar thing. It's like the ego. The ego's only there to keep you above water. Once we realize something good about ourselves, we have a tendency to abuse the gift.