Tom Peters Quotes

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

I think it was when I realised I could talk anybody into doing just about anything I wanted them to.

Force is never more operative than when it is known to exist but is not brandished.

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

That's not to say Eddie's never done anything malicious. But he never grabbed power for power's sake. His position was gained only because he has that energy, and that's naturally where he ended up.

I have with me two gods, Persuasion and Compulsion.

Power never turns power down, ever, unless institutionally demanded.

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

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

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

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

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

Always remember the first rule of power tactics; power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

Nobody is as powerful as we make them out to be.

He who can destroy a thing, can control a thing.

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

Great ambition, the desire of real superiority, of leading and directing, seems to be altogether peculiar to man, and speech is the great instrument of ambition.

Power has long been regarded as morally corrosive, and we often suspect the intentions of those who seek it.

I like power and I like to use it.

If you were to come to Minnesota, I could have you locked up like that. That's power.

Shakespeare reveals human nature brilliantly: he shines a light on our instinctive desire to dominate each other.

He was always testing you. He was always testing his power.

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

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

Power has no limits.