Quotes on Power

From Bertrand Russel's `Power'

1. The doctrine of Liberals [...] Men were to be free in so far as their actions did not injure others [...] almost any opinion worth either advocating or combating is sure to affect someone adversely. The right of free speech is nugatory unless it includes the right to say things that may have unpleasant consequences to certain individuals or classes.

2. success should, as far as possible, be the reward of some genuine merit.

3. The State should not regard itself as the guardian of truth in science, metaphysics,
or morals.

4. It is bound up with democracy and the right of discontented communities to autonomy; in a word, with the right to peacefully achieve what would otherwise be achieved by revolution.

5. Quoting Gibbon : `The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people to be equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.'

6. Instead of different newspapers, each devoted to the interests of one party and encouraging the dogmatism of its readers, he will advocate a single newspaper, in which all parties are represented.

7. A man says St Paul, `is the image and glory of God:but the woman is the glory of man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman is of the man. Neither was man created for woman; but the woman for the man' (I Corinthians xi, 7-9)

8. Monarchy makes social cohesion easy, first, because it is not so difficult to feel loyalty to an individual as to an abstraction.

9. Certified lunatics are shut up because of their proneness to violence when their pretensions are questioned; the uncertified variety are given control of powerful armies; and can inflict death and disaster upon all sane men within their reach.

10. I believe that few men are cruel if they have had a wise early education, have not
lived among scenes of violence, and have not had undue difficulty in finding a carreer.
11. Nothing improves the moral level of a community as much as an increase in wealth, and nothing lowers it so much as a diminution of wealth.