Power

Power                                                                       [1577 - 646]

Power is more important than popularity.

Knowledge is power.

Knowledge is power, above all knowledge about other people.

If there is no authority, power is needed.

Power cannot survive without prestige, and prestige cannot survive without distance.

The hardest temptation is not money or love. The most difficult temptation is power.

Power is that which is conquered, consolidated and expanded.

When interests and ideologies reached a position of power they lose their morality.

Where there is power, there is also abuse of power.

Without abuse, power is not fascinating.

In the kingdom of the blind, there is a one-eyed king.

Power is evil in itself.

There is no power without hate.

There is only one way to fight power. Survive it!

Use of power

If you ever come to power and are benefited and intoxicated by it, even if it is only for a year, you will not give it up voluntarily.

If you want to maintain your position in power, you must learn that you cannot always be good, but to be or not to be, all as needed.

Even the most honest of great men need villains around them. There are things they cannot ask honest people to do.

The art of being a prince is that you do the good yourself personally and the evil through a deputy.

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.

All humans are animals; the princes are animals that are not chained.

Even a good leader, who has been in power for a long time, becomes a risk to his people, as a result of his aides who become increasingly corrupt over time.

A strong man ruling over a country becomes a danger to his people the longer he stays in power.

Charisma can be a stumbling block for leaders. It makes them inflexible, convinced of their infallibility, incapable of change.

The least harmful for the people is when the top management of the country changes often, preferably democratically.

If you want to control others, you must first exercise self-control.

The worst government is virtuous. A government made up of cynics is often quite tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are in power, there is no limit to oppression.

If the citizens only knew how little sense their kingdom is governed by.

If you want to rule a state and uphold its laws, you must assume that people are evil and that they are willing to give in to their evil inclinations when the opportunity arises.

The great leader has no need to lead the way - for him it is enough to show the direction.

Implementing change is important in leadership. The changes that are made before others are creativity.

Effective business is always unfair.

Fanaticism consists of redoubling efforts when one has forgotten the goal.

I don't want any yes-sayers around me. I want everyone to have their say, even if it costs them their job.

Old men are dangerous. The future is indifferent to them.

The weakness of strength is that it only believes in strength.

Democracy

Democracy is a form of government based on the exchange of opinions. The problem is that it only becomes effective when people stop exchanging opinions.

Democracy is a lousy form of government, but the alternatives are worse.

Democracy enables the election of a majority of incompetents instead of the appointment of a few corrupt ones.

Democracy is a social system where you say what you think and do as you are told.

What is the difference between democracy and other forms of government? Democracy is more difficult.

Administration is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.

Where stupidity and thoroughness meet, administration arises.

We best fight bureaucrats by following their orders.

Thanks to the fact that there are people who dare to defy the dictates of their leaders, it gives hope for the future.

The progress of a nation can only be measured by the social position of its women.

Only the dead are equal.

Revolution

Revolution: in politics, a sudden change in the form of misrule.

The successful revolutionary is a statesman. The unsuccessful one is a criminal.

Every revolution evaporates, leaving behind only the sludge of new bureaucracy.

Dictatorship 

A dictatorship is a state in which all fear one and one fears all.

The worst thing is not the power of the bad, but the cowardice of the good.

Only the elite and the mob can be attracted by the driving force of totalitarianism. The masses must be won over by propaganda.

Great men are almost always bad men.

When a small man casts a long shadow, then darkness is near.

The megalomaniac has delusions of grandeur; he differs from the narcissist in that he prefers to be influential rather than charming, to be hated rather than loved. Many insane people and most of the great men in history belong to these characters.

The great mass of the people fall victim more easily to a big lie than to a small one.

Greatness needs mystery. The familiar rarely attracts admiration.

The reasons of the strongest are always the best.

Power corrupts. Unlimited power corrupts absolutely.

The difference between democracy and dictatorship is that in a democracy the idiots get to vote - in a dictatorship they rule.

The dictator's attitude to electoral procedure - The most important thing is who counts the votes.

Advice for dictators: Never miss taking advantage of a good crisis.

Where books are burned, people are soon burned.

Much can be said about dictatorships. But only in democracies.

Dictators are never wrong - as long as they have power.

Tyrants rarely lack excuses.

If you ride the tiger, you can't get off.

Fundamentalism makes peace on earth a utopia.

Mausoleum: The last and most ridiculous follies of the most powerful.

War

If you want peace, prepare for war.

Organized hatred is unity.

The first victim, when war comes, is the truth.

All political ideologies have a lowest common denominator: the soldier!

"Dying for an ideology" may sound nice, but why not let the ideology die instead of people.

War is wonderful only for those who do not know it.

War is just a cowardly escape from problems in peacetime.

Patriots often talk about dying for their country, but never about killing for it.

The state always calls itself the fatherland when it is preparing a murder.

War is too serious a matter to be left to the generals.

What peace builds, war tears down.

War is easy to start but hard to end.

War does not solve any problems, so they continue.

Cannon: A tool for correcting state borders.

The happiness of war means thousands of dead and maimed.

The men killed in war know nothing of victory.

The flower of reconciliation has difficulty taking root in bloodstained soil.

War is part of human nature, but it is not the kind of nature we should preserve.

A nuclear war does not solve any problems, since there is a risk that it will leave behind a number of survivors.

The only ones who are lucky in a nuclear war are those who die at the first blow.

Peace

You can either win or buy peace. Win by resisting evil. Buy by making a pact with evil.

If you want to achieve peace, talk to your enemies, not your friends.

Peace cannot be maintained by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

Better a dog in peace than a man in war.

[Valta]