Maya Angelou Quotes

Everywhere in life people are in authority to make decisions and you have to abide by them, whether right or wrong.

Woe to him that claims obedience when it is not due; woe to him that refuses it when it is.

The prime minister found something hopeful in the man's eyes and manner. The 30 or so people who run this world analyze one another that way and then make decisions of life and death for us. Scary, but true.

A day may sink or save a realm.

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.

We need a little more 'Hail to the Chief.'

If you use power too loosely, you lose power.

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

When you strike at a king, you must kill him.

Telling a man to go to hell and making him go are two different propositions.

Whether it's a blessing or a curse, it's a fact that we have power. Everyone—friend and enemy—looks to see how we use it, how we treat it, how we keep it.

The people are difficult to govern: It is because those in authority are too fond of action [change].

You've got your maximum amount of power in your honeymoon period. The decisions may be wrong, history may prove them wrong, but at least you do it.

Once you've built the big machinery of political power, remember you won't always be the one to run it.

You can try, but you seem cleverer than Fudge, so I'd have thought you'd have learned from his mistakes. He tried intervening at Hogwarts. You might have noticed he's not Minister anymore, but Dumbledore's still headmaster. I'd leave Dumbledore alone, if I were you.

It is easier to give directions than advice, and more agreeable to have the right to act, even in a limited sphere, than the privilege to talk at large.

The actions of those in power can have enormous consequences - a price that they themselves almost never have to pay.

Be occupied, then, with what you really value and let the thief take something else.

The weight of the world is on our shoulders, its vision is through our eyes; if we blink or look aside, or turn back to finger what Plato said or remember Napoleon and his conquests, we inflict on the world the injury of some obliquity. This is life.

As a commander-in-chief what you do and what you say has real consequences.

Do you know what happens with people who cannot govern themselves? That's right. Others come in to govern for them.

To be right and overruled is not forgiven to persons in responsible positions.

Power is the relation of a given person to other persons, in which the more this person expresses opinions, theories and justifications of the collective action the less is his participation in that action.

I can't let it pass when you say: "You are the weak party." No, I am not the weak party. I am the man who is making the war. I am the man who is making the peace.