Ken Wilber Quotes

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

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

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

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

The word power has such a generally negative implication in our society. What are people talking about? Are they talking about muscles, or control?

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

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

People who are in power make their arrangements in secret, largely as a way of maintaining and furthering that power.

The less people know about what is going on, the easier it is to wield power and authority.

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

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.

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.

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.

But, to protect men, we must have the power of controlling them. We must first enslave them before we can protect them.

Force rules the world-not opinion; but it is opinion that makes use of force.

A lot of people refer to power as shooting a loaded gun. When you have to shoot the gun, you've lost the power. Other people's knowledge of your gun should be enough.

Social control is best managed through fear.

For the power of Man to make himself what he pleases means... the power of some men to make other men what THEY please.

Most power is power to coerce somebody. We don't have the power to coerce anybody.

Opinion is, as it were, the queen of the world, but force is its tyrant.

If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.

The most important thing about power is to make sure you don't have to use it.

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