Power Transition Quotes

Don’t any of you realize that there is only one life between this madman and the Presidency.

Yesterday Kerensky; today Lenin and Trotsky; another tomorrow.

It was a transition of power, not by the ballot box…. The people who lost the election are now in power. The people who won the election are now in jail.

I never believed that surrendering the executive power should be a condition of getting the second term. The second term should stand on its own feet.

when greed and fear are linked to power, you have a dangerous mix. We see that in political life. In part of the world, the mix of greed and fear means that those who get power become reluctant to give it back. One of the many things I like and admire in our democracies are the norms that make our leaders hand over power when voters tell them to

The most important detail separating the West from the East is the existence of administrators who are able to give up power. Former presidents, prime ministers and deputies must be reconciled to leaving power.

This [American] empire will not last. No empire does. If empires lasted, the whole world would be speaking ancient Persian today.

When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it's normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers.

As the Trump presidency goes on, there will be a transcendency of power and culture and vision from the music scene, the art world that will find a voice and give hope to us all.

When you have an autocratic regime you have no guarantee that the regime will last beyond the autocrat.

The thing that I would say is that U.S. power is not eternal. I am not saying that it won't come to an end. Because it will.

The name of a successor is like the tolling of my own death-bell!

So benevolent, enlightened, wise dictators are the most efficient form of government. The problem is what comes afterwards, right?

The sudden death of the leading man will cause change, making another man leader. Soon, but too late, the young man will attain high office. By land and sea, he will be feared.

Every president is a product of those who preceded him.

The transfer of power is always a test of the constitutional system, a test of its strength.

Grass is growing on the Front Bench.

It is extreme arrogance for one to think he is the only one who can govern his country and nobody else can do it. We're all human. After 10, 15 years you get tired, you run out of steam and ideas, you have to give a chance to somebody else. And whether you yourself are inclined to stay on, all those around you are pushing you to stay on for what they will gain. One has to have the strength of character to say the time has come to move on...unless you are a king.

The critical thing about Western democracy is the fact that you usually have a transition of power without bloodshed. That is an enormous advantage. But still, democracy as we know it was only invented recently in the West, historical speaking. It did not really work in ancient Rome. It functioned for less than 200 years in ancient Athens.

[In ancient Rome,] why did the senate after killing Caesar turn around and give the government to his nephew? Why did France after they got rid of the king and that whole system turn around and give it to Napoleon? It's the same thing with Germany and Hitler.

In a democracy, power is not permanent.

Europe began as the relatively empty, uncivilized Wild West of Asia; then the Western Hemisphere became the Wild West of Europe. Now the sun has set in our West and risen once more in the East.

A change in the system will be possible only through the transition of power to supporters of green politics.

The aristocracy of feudal parchment has passed away with a mighty rushing, and now, by a natural course, we arrive at aristocracy of the money-bag.

Vice presidents are supposed to be eternally loyal, which is why it is so difficult for some to figure out how to succeed their bosses.