William ShakespeareSourced
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.
Source: Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2 — Cassius
Checked quotes about power
8 quotes with a known source.
Sun TzuSourced
All warfare is based on deception.
Source: The Art of War I.18, tr. Lionel Giles
Sun TzuSourced
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.
Source: The Art of War III.2, tr. Lionel Giles
Niccolò MachiavelliSourced
It is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with.
Source: The Prince, ch. 17, tr. W. K. Marriott
Francis BaconSourced
Knowledge itself is power.
Source: Meditationes Sacrae (1597) ("Ipsa scientia potestas est")
Jean-Jacques RousseauSourced
Let them eat brioche.
Rousseau credits it to "a great princess". Marie Antoinette was a child in Austria at the time — she never said "let them eat cake".
Source: Confessions, Book VI (written c. 1765)
Theodore RooseveltSourced
Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.
He called it a West African proverb.
Source: Letter to Henry L. Sprague (26 January 1900)
George OrwellSourced
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
Source: Animal Farm, ch. 10 (1945)
Famous, but not theirs
Quotes about power that are usually credited to the wrong person.
Abraham LincolnNot theirs
Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.
Actually: Robert G. Ingersoll writing about Lincoln in 1883 — a compliment, later turned into a quote.
VoltaireNot theirs
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.
Actually: Traced to the American white-nationalist writer Kevin Alfred Strom (1993). Nothing to do with Voltaire.
Niccolò MachiavelliMisquoted
The end justifies the means.
The real words: Not in The Prince. Chapter 18 says that in the actions of princes "one judges by the result" — close in spirit, but the slogan is later.