The Nature of Power Survey

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.

—Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love, 1963

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

—Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power

corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power

corrupts those who are subject to it.

—Aung San Suu Kyi, “Freedom from fear” speech, 1990

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

—Mao Zedong

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

—Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, 1981

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall.

—Mohandas Gandhi

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

—Jimi Hendrix

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

This country has been strip-mined by rich and powerful interests. If you don’t like what they’re doing, don’t just sit there.

—Ralph Nader, 1992

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True

The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable.

—John F. Kennedy, speech at Amherst College, 1963

• Always True

• Often True

• Sometimes True

• Seldom True

• Never True