Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Frederick Douglass
About This Quote

The idea that power will always accede to a demand is a comforting one for many people. However, it is not the whole truth. While power does concede to a demand, it will do so only when it can safely assume that the person who is making the demand will not be able to resist any attempt at coercion. In other words, when power does give way, it will give way only to a person who has been proven to be unwilling or unable to use coercion against the power-holder.

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true. - Unknown
  2. As time and space are bent by gravity, so too is truth bent by power. - James Rozoff
  3. It is the destiny of the weak to be devoured by the strong. - Otto Von Bismarck
  4. The worship of power is an old religion. - George Santayana
  5. What a curious power words have. - Tadeusz Borowski
More Quotes By Frederick Douglass
  1. The thought of only being a creature of the present and the past was troubling. I longed for a future too, with hope in it. The desire to be free, awakened my determination to act, to think , and to speak.
  2. I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes, - a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, - a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, - and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest,...
  3. The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers. I could regard them in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and...
  4. If there is no struggle there is no progress.
  5. Slaves are generally expected to sing as well as to work.
Related Topics