C. Wright Mills Quotes

The power to define the situation is the ultimate power.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

Power is being able to affect the hegemony of existing systems.

Institutions are more powerful than men.

Power rests on the ability to satisfy human needs.

Influence is not government.

Politics and power is a realm of relative influence.

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.

If you ever live in a country run by a committee, be on the committee.

Power gravitates to the man who knows how.

But you will understand by yourselves that the matter applies equally well to the organization of the officials of justice, of administrative officials, etc; these are likewise organized instruments of power in certain societies.

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

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.

One of the main ways that leadership stays in power is by, in various ways, convincing people that they should just let those who are in government govern: 'Trust us. Trust me. Just let us take care of things. Stay out of it.' Your opinions don't really matter. You are isolated. You are insignificant.

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.

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

To deny we need and want power is to deny that we hope to be effective.

I will interview bigwigs if I get the chance, but you are seldom surprised by people in power - you've got to get awfully damn close to get anything new.

Power is not just political. It can be cultural; it can be spiritual.

I don't think of my books as being biographies. I never had any interest in doing a book just to write the life of a great man. I had zero interest in that. My interest is in power. How power works.

Society receives its momentum from power.

The primary object of every elite, or ruling class, is to maintain its own power and privilege.

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

They who possess the prince possess the laws.

I have several times suggested that what I call the “Establishment” in this country is today more powerful than ever before. By “Establishment” I do not mean only the centers of official power – though they are certainly part of it – but rather the whole matrix of official and social relations within which power is exercised ... the “Establishment” can be seen at work in the activities of, not only the Prime Minister, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Earl Marshal, but of such lesser mortals as the Chairman of the Arts Council, the Director-General of the BBC, and even the editor of the Times Literary Supplement, not to mention dignitaries like Lady Violet Bonham Carter.