Power Decline Quotes

Political paralysis and partisanship are sabotaging American power.

When great powers fade, as they inevitably must, it's normally for one of two reasons. Some powers exhaust themselves through overreach abroad, underinvestment at home, or a mixture of the two. This was the case for the Soviet Union. Other powers lose their privileged position with the emergence of new, stronger powers.

Nothing is as sad as seeing a person who used to have power have none.

ON the decline of the Roman power, about five centuries after Christ, the countries of Northern Europe were left almost destitute of a national government.

If the history of hyperpowers has shown anything, it is the danger of xenophobic backlash. Time and again, past world-dominant powers have fallen precisely when their core groups turned intolerant, reasserting their ‘true’ and ‘pure’ identity and adopting exclusionary policies towards ‘unassimilable’ groups.

Cordless vacuums are designed for quick jobs, but you need enough power to do the job; you don't want the power waning over time.

Old systems do not fold willingly, particularly when they control gargantuan amounts of wealth and power. But like empires of old - from the Romans to the Hapsburgs to the colonial British - even the largest do fall.

History is replete with examples of empires mounting impressive military campaigns on the cusp of their impending economic collapse.

France has never gotten over the fact that it was once a great power and is now just a great nuisance.

While the West has enjoyed overwhelming global power, its moral preachings have been legitimised, and in effect enforced, by that power. But as that power begins to ebb, then the morality of its actions will be the subject of growing scrutiny and challenge.

Long before they slump into poverty, great powers succumb to a poverty of ambition.

The United States is already antique.

The worst thing about being a great power is when you're not one any more. It takes centuries to get over it.

This country has had 200 years of hegemony over the rest of the world, and it feels like our politicians, they just want to give that back.

When words cease to cling close to things, kingdoms fall, empires wane and diminish.

Here I am,' I thought, 'back from the jungle, back from the ruins. Here, where wealth is no longer gorgeous and power has no dignity.