We were in the presence of a new factor in human affairs. We possessed powers which were irresistible ... our outlook on the future was transformed.
After the first atomic bomb test, the day before the Potsdam Conference began:
Dark forces dragged me away from the keyboard, swirling forces of irresistible intensity and power.
What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.
Regeneration is a work of the omnipotent power of God, power that nothing can overcome or resist.
I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats of any kind, whether of jail or retribution, then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer, not the prophet who sacrificed himself.... What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth.
My idea was to build Liverpool into a bastion of invincibility. Had Napoleon had that idea he would have conquered the bloody world. I wanted Liverpool to be untouchable. My idea was to build Liverpool up and up until eventually everyone would have to submit and give in.
Ahimsa must be placed before everything else while it is professed. Then alone it becomes irresistible.
For men to plunge headlong into an undertaking of vast change, they must be intensely discontented yet not destitute, and they must have the feeling that by the possession of some potent doctrine, infallible leader or some new technique they have access to a source of irresistible power.
Any sincere thought is irresistible.