A Quote by Anna Deavere Smith

My job in my work is not to acquire power; it's to question power.

Anna Deavere Smith

Quote Topics

Acquire Job Power Question Work

Quote Author

Anna Deavere Smith
American - Actress
Born: September 18, 1950

I think the corruption of power is very interesting, and I think the idea that power is something that... You know, when people want power, they're a certain individual. When people acquire power by accident, they're different again.

David Morrissey

A lot of people profess to have power and it is very minor astral power. They do get power over you, not because they have any intrinsic power, but because your fear immobilizes you and makes you do a bad job.

Frederick Lenz

Our work has only begun. In our time we have an historic opportunity to shape a global balance of power that favors freedom and that will therefore deepen and extend the peace. And I use the word power broadly, because even more important than military and indeed economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope.

Condoleezza Rice

Consciousness begins when brains acquire the power, the simple power I must add, of telling a story.

Antonio Damasio

He possessed the power. He held it in his hand. A power stronger than the power of money or the power of terror or the power of death: the invincible power to command the love of mankind. There was only one thing that power could not do: it could not make him able to smell himself.

Patrick Süskind

We who didn't inherit political power nor are made to acquire riches like nothing better than that which expands and solidifies the power of the spirit.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Before we acquire great power we must acquire wisdom to use it well.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I think soft power definitely can work. But, you know, it depends on who you're dealing with. Some people are so intent upon power and keeping power that it's very difficult to conduct soft power.

George W. Bush

Let us not be too prodigal when we are young, nor too parsimonious when we are old. Otherwise we shall fall into the common error of those, who, when they had the power to enjoy, had not the prudence to acquire; and when they had the prudence to acquire, had no longer the power to enjoy.

Charles Caleb Colton

Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.

George Orwell

Love is power, the purest power and the greatest power: Love is God. Nothing can be higher than that. But this power is not a desire to enslave others, this power is not a destructive force. This power is the very source of creation. This power is creativity. And this power will transform you totally into a new being. It has no concern with anybody. Its whole concern is to bring your seeds to their ultimate flowering.

Rajneesh

I use the word power broadly. Even more important than military and economic power is the power of ideas, the power of compassion, and the power of hope.

Condoleezza Rice

The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend to be taken over by people who are corruptible. I don't think that the old saw about 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely' is accurate: I think power attracts the corruptible.

Frank Herbert

I was directed and commanded by another power. The power of darkness. The power that you've heard so much about. The power that a lot of people don't believe exists. The power of the Devil. Satan.

Little Richard

If you get in a battle with someone, you don't get their power if you win. Power is something that you have to acquire yourself, through self-inquiry and the practice of meditation.

Frederick Lenz

The question of whether one has one's own political power or goes to work for someone else is not only a feminist question.