Alan Watts Quotes

The classic problem in a relationship is a person trying to control the other person. People just want to conquer somebody.

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.

The probability of the people in power being individuals who would dislike the possession and exercise of power is on a level with the probability that an extremely tender-hearted person would get the job of whipping-master in a slave plantation.

He wanted her. He knew where to find her. He waited. It amused him to wait, because he knew that the waiting was unbearable to her. He knew that his absence bound her to him in a manner more complete and humiliating than his presence could enforce. He was giving her time to attempt an escape, in order to let her know her own helplessness when he chose to see her again.

Power is fortified not just by what it destroys, but also by what it creates. Not just by what it takes, but also by what it gives. And powerlessness reaffirmed not just by the helplessness of those who have lost, but also by the gratitude of those who have (or think they have) gained.

I have plumbed the depth of human cowardice and I realized that there is only one way to be right, and that is to be in power.

The less the power, the greater the desire to exercise it.

They try to make you think they care about what you do but they don't. They don't want you to act a certain way. So you're easy to understand. So you won't pose a threat to them.

Power-over is resorted to time without number because people will not wait for the slower process of education.

To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.

Authoritarians tend to consolidate support by using fear, but more importantly by driving a wedge among the people that they want to control.

Most human beings, though in varying degrees, desire to control, not only their own lives but also the lives of others

Unconsciously, perhaps, we treasure the power we have over people by their regard for our opinion of them, and we hate those upon whom we have no such influence.

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

Power is the ability to define phenomena, and make it act in a desired manner.

Obtain power, then, by all means; power is the law of man; make it yours.

To need to dominate others is to need others. The commander is dependent.

Harassment is about power---the undue exercise of power by a superior over a subordinate.

Content is an obstacle to the exercise of power.

Control over a woman is the only form of dominance most men possess, for most men are merely subjects of more powerful men.

The love of violence is an aspect of our humanity. Even the weak wish to be strong primarily so they can wield the whip.

Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself.

To make someone wait: the constant prerogative of all power.

If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.

The oppressor has always indoctrinated the weak with his interpretation of the crimes of the strong.