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 2. A crown Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns; Brings danger, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights To him who wears a regal diadem.

 3. A good intention clothes itself with power.

 4. A man should live with his superiors as he does with his fire: not too near, lest he burn; nor too far off, lest he freeze.

 5. A person must learn to be adaptable and serve others in order to rule. Willing followers are not acquired by force or cunning but through consistency in doing what is human and proper.

 6. A skillful commander is not overbearing. A skillful fighter does not become angry. A skillful conqueror does not compete with people. One who is skillful in using men puts himself below them. This is called the virtue of not-competing. This is called the strength to use men. This is called matching Heaven, The highest principle of old.

 7. All human power is a compound of time and patience.

 8. Authority intoxicates, And makes mere sots of magistrates; The fumes of it invade the brain, And make men giddy, proud, and vain.

 9. Beware of the ruling powers! for they do not be-friend a person except for their own needs: they seem like friends when it is to their advantage, but they do not stand by a man when he is hard-pressed.

10. Covenants without swords are but words.

11. Force and not opinion is the queen of the world; but it is opinion that uses force.

12. Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived.

13. Governing a large organization requires timely activity and discreet inactivity on the part of the chief executive. One must be particularly sensitive to promising circumstances, talented men, and the right objectives.

14. Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is force.

15. Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.

16. Happy the man who early learns the wide chasm that lies between his wishes and his powers!

17. He hath no power that hath not power to use.

18. He never sold the truth to serve the hour, Nor paltered with Eternal God for power.

19. He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself, richly endowed with depth of understanding and height of knowledge.

20. He who ascends to mountain tops, shall find The loftiest peaks most wrapped in clouds and snow; He who surpasses or subdues mankind, Must look down on the hate of those below.

21. He who has great power should use it lightly.

22. He who makes another powerful ruins himself, for he makes the other so either by shrewdness or force, and both of these qualities are feared by the one who becomes powerful.

23. Hence it happened that all the armed prophets conquered, all the unarmed perished.

24. I have never been able to conceive how any rational being could propose happiness to himself from the exercise of power over others.

25. I know of nothing sublime which is not some modification of power.

26. I thought that my invincible power would hold the world captive, leaving me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hardstrokes. When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip.

27. If it were in my power, I would be wiser; but a newly felt power carries me off in spite of myself; love leads me one way, my understanding another.

28. If one is the master of oneself, one is the resort one can depend on; therefore, one should control oneself of all.

29. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men the great difficulty lies in this: You must first enable the government to control the governed, and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

30. It (government) is neither business nor technology nor applied science...(It is) one of the subtlest of the arts...since it is the art of making men live together in peace and with reasonable happiness.

31. It is a miserable state of mind, to have few things to desire and many things to fear: and yet that commonly is the case of Kings.

32. It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man's real character than power and authority, exciting as they do every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

33. It is better to have a lion at the head of an army of sheep, than a sheep at the head of an army of lions.

34. It is Genius that gets Power; and its prime lieutenants are Force and Wisdom. The unruliest of men bend before the leader that has the sense to see and the will to do.

35. It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.

36. It is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery.

37. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

38. Knowledge and human power are synonymous, since the ignorance of the cause frustrates the effect.

39. Knowledge comes by eyes always open and working hard, and there is no knowledge that is not power.

40. Let him that would move the world, first move himself.

41. Not believing in force is the same as not believing in gravitation.

42. Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage. The way in which power works is a mystery.

43. Nothing is so weak and unstable as a reputation for power not based on force.

44. O Thou! the favourite of Heaven, whom the sons of men, thy equals, have agreed to raise to sovereign power, and set as a ruler over themselves; consider the ends and importance of their trust, far more than the dignity and height of thy station.

45. Of old those who were the best rulers were subtly mysterious and profoundly penetrating; Too deep to comprehend. And because they cannot be comprehended, I can only describe them arbitrarily: Cautious, like crossing a frozen stream in the winter, Alert, like one fearing danger on all sides, Reserved, like one visiting, Yielding, like ice about to melt, Genuine, like a piece of uncarved wood, Open and broad, like a valley, Merged and undifferentiated, like muddy water.

46. Of that Equilibrium between Authority and Individual Action which constitutes Free Government, be settling on immutable foundations Liberty with Obedience to Law, Equality with Subjection to Authority, and Fraternity with Subordination to the Wisest and the Best: and of that Equilibrium between the Active Energy of the Will of the Present, expressed by the Vote of the People, and the Passive Stability and Permanence of the Will of the Past, expressed inconstitutions of government, written or unwritten, and in laws and customs, gray with age and sanctified by time, as precedents and authority.

47. Only one accomplishment is beyond both the power and the mercy of the Gods. They cannot make the past as though it had never been.

48. Power acquired by guilt was never used for a good purpose.

49. Power buries those who wield it.

50. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.

51. Power exercised with violence has seldom been of long duration, but temper and moderation generally produce permanence in all things.

52. Power intoxicates men. It is never voluntarily surrendered. It must be taken from them.

53. Power invariably means both responsibility and danger.

54. Power is always gradually stealing away from the many to the few, because the few are more vigilant and consistent.

55. Power is more retained by wary measures than by daring counsels.

56. Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.

57. Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of power.

58. Power may justly be compared to a great river; while kept within its bounds it is both beautiful and useful, but when it overflows its banks, it is then too impetuous to be stemmed; it bears down all before it, and brings destruction and desolation wherever it comes.

59. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity; and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.

60. Power will intoxicate the best hearts, as wine the strongest heads. No man is wise enough, nor good enough to be trusted with unlimited power.

61. Power, like lightning, injures before its warning.

62. Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer; it dignifies meanness; it magnifies littleness; to what is contemptible, it gives authority; to what is low, exaltation.

63. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control, These three alone lead life to sovereign power.

64. So when a great man dies, For years beyond our ken, The light he leaves behind him lies Upon the paths of men.

65. Spiritual force is stronger than material force; thoughts rule the world.

66. Start a political upheaval and let yourself be caught, and you will hang as a traitor. But place yourself at the head of a rebellion and gain your point, and all future generations will worship you as the Father of their Country.

67. The great man with vigour should demand the rightness of things, timeliness of action, and propriety of method. In this way, power does not degenerate into sheer force.

68. The great rivers and seas are kings of all mountain streams Because they skillfully stay below them. That is why they can be their kings. Therefore, in order to be the superior of the people, One must, in the use of words, place himself below them, And in order to be ahead of the people, One must, in one's own person, follow them.

69. The great rulers - the people do not notice their existence; The lesser ones - they love and praise them; The still lesser ones - they fear them; The still lesser ones - they despise them.

70. The greater a man is in power above others, the more he ought to excel them in virtue. None ought to govern who is not better than the governed.

71. The higher we rise, the more isolated we become; all elevations are cold.

72. The King is dead, by millions mourned, That bared their heads, or wept, or sighed; The dog, that waited for him in vain, Has broken its heart, and died. So end two lives, and one so small thing- It never knew its Master was a King.

73. The King said, "The Athenians govern the Greeks; I govern the Athenians; you, my wife, govern me; your son governs you."

74. The king who delegates his power to other's hands but ill deserves the crown he wears.

75. The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.

76. The measure of man is what he does with power.

77. The natural forces crush and destroy man when he transgresses them, as they destroy or neutralize one another.

78. The punishment suffered by the wise who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of bad men.

79. The spirit of a person's life is ever shedding some power, just as a flower is steadily bestowing fragrance upon the air.

80. The tempest uproots not the soft grasses that bow low on all sides; on the lofty trees it strikes hard. It is against the mighty that the mighty puts forth his prowess.

81. The world is governed only by self-interest.

82. There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

83. There is nothing which power cannot believe of itself, when it is praised as equal to the gods.

84. Those who can command themselves command others.

85. To know the pains of power, we must go to those who have it; to know its pleasures, we must go to those who seek it: the pains of power are real, its pleasures imaginary.

86. Unlimited power corrupts the possessor.

87. What government is the best? That which teaches us to govern ourselves.

88. What is the pay for titles, but flattery? how doth man purchase power but by being a slave to him who giveth it?

89. When the government is non-discriminative and dull, The people are contented and generous. When the government is searching and discriminative, The people are disappointed and contentious. Calamity is that upon which happiness depends; Happiness is that in which calamity is latent...

90. Wherever I found a living creature, there I found the will to power.