Power acquired by violence is only a usurpation, and lasts only as long as the force of him who commands prevails over that of those who obey.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
The power which establishes a state is violence; the power which maintains it is violence; the power which eventually overthrows it is violence.
Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.
Power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it.
Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.
But constant experience shows us that every man invested with power is apt to abuse it, and to carry his authority as far as it will go.
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.
Wars based on principle are far more destructive... the attacker will not destroy that which he is after.
The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority.
But the one thing that has power completely is love, because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power.
The strongest and most effective force in guaranteeing the long-term maintenance of power is not violence in all the forms deployed by the dominant to control the dominated, but consent in all the forms in which the dominated acquiesce in their own domination.