Mahatma Gandhi Quotes

The world is ruled by force, not by opinion; but opinion uses force.

Power depends ultimately on physical force. By teaching people that violence is wrong (except, of course, when the system itself uses violence via the police or the military), the system maintains its monopoly on physical force and thus keeps all power in its own hands.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun. And we get it that if you want a friend you should get a dog.

Every man who repeats the dogma of Mill that one country is no fit to rule another country must admit that one class is not fit to rule another class.

All governments, without exception, are stable only insofar as they can effectively reward and punish.

The military in all these struggling democracies is an important player. They can take over the leadership or determine the leadership.

Each age must … contend anew with the question of power and accountability.

Coercion is the basis of every law in the universe.

As force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as the most free and the most popular.

Nothing appears more surprising ... than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few.

The struggle between Liberty and Authority is the most conspicuous feature in the portions of history with which we are earliest familiar.

What is politics, after all, but the compulsion to preside over property and make other people's decisions for them?

Religions are manipulated in order to serve those who govern society and not the other way around.

What are the relationships between power and knowledge? There are two bad, short answers: 1. Knowledge provides an instrument that those in power can wield for their own ends. 2. A new body of knowledge brings into being a new class of people or institutions that can exercise a new kind of power.

Ultimately, political order does not generate itself.

Government should fear the people, not the other way around.

The funny thing about any cop uniform is that people will do what you say when you're wearing a cop uniform.

Government is a necessary evil

When authority is backed up by an immediate physical compulsion, what we are dealing with is not authority proper (i.e. symbolic authority), but simply an agency of brute force.

States are violent to the extent that they have the power to act in the interests of those with domestic power

Politics is the name we give to the orchestration of power in any society.

The rationality of the ruled is always the weapon of the rulers.

Hume's paradox does hold: power is in the hands of the governed. If they refuse to accept it, you're in trouble, no matter how many guns you have.