Power Struggles Quotes

“She turned and walked towards Krupp. She moved like smoke from the end of a cigarette in a still room, languorous, smooth. Her beauty stopped the conversation of the few people she walked past. Eyes of envy, lust, admiration, longing, followed her every move as she glided through the sumptuously furnished, dimly lit Champagne Bar. Krupp realised she was moving through the room deliberately towards him. He held his breath again as she approached him. His heart thumped against his lungs, making it hard to breathe out. Krupp sat up and he gulped when she saw him and looked straight into his eyes. He felt a tingle up his spine as she seemed to float, slowly, like a ghostly spirit between the tables. He wondered if she was real or a spectre. This could not possibly be Freya, he thought, and yet there was something …
She arrived at the table. She relaxed a knee. Their eyes met, a small smile on her lips. Krupp suddenly remembered his manners and stood, hauling himself up with the aid of his stick and the arm of the sofa. It could not have been an elegant move, he thought with annoyance. He should have remained seated.
“May I join you?” she said in perfect German.”
― Hugo Woolley, The Wasp Trap

“Good evening, Sergeant,” Helen said. “What’s that?”
He held the bag out to her. “A present for Lieutenant Angel. Something
to eat on your journey.”
She took it and put it back on the desk. “Wipe that damn grin off
your face, Sergeant. A smiling Toltec is a contradiction in terms.”
― Candace L. Talmadge, Stoneslayer: Book One Scandal

“Trying to win a power struggle is like trying to win a nuclear war. You may achieve your goal, but not without catastrophic casualties on both sides.”
― Jamie Raser, Raising Children You Can Live With: A Guide for Frustrated Parents

“All of the wars in the world are fueled by power struggles either at individual, national or international levels”
― Bangambiki Habyarimana, The Great Pearl of Wisdom

“All through their relationship, Harry was the one in charge, Harry was the one who gave them direction. This wasn’t because Harry was smarter or even better at it than Craig was; it just meant more to him, to be in control. And Craig didn’t really care, so he ceded it away. He liked not being responsible all the time.
Complacency. Craig realizes now that this was complacency. One of the reasons he liked the sound of Harry’s voice was because it meant he didn’t have to use his own. But eventually this strategy backfired. Eventually Harry realized what was happening, and didn’t feel right about it. He wanted Craig to fight a little more, but by the time Craig started fighting for them to stay together, he had already lost.”
― David Levithan, Two Boys Kissing

“Their forces equal in a kind of match Shigure had never been in before, the kind of match where your opponent wanted you to win while you wished for nothing other than to die at his hands.”
― H.J. Brues, Yakuza Pride

“Men cannot make good decisions about their lifelong mate when driven by the passions of youth. If Pakal is continuing to see this woman, I will immediately put this to an end." -- Sak K'uk, Queen Mother of Janaab Pakal, Ruler of Palenque.”
― Leonide Martin, The Mayan Red Queen: Tz'aakb'u Ahau of Palenque

“That afternoon, she'd looked across at Storrow, at his proud, immaculate features and depthless gaze, and felt as if this man was every man she'd ever hated. He was Torsten; he was Vasily; he was every brutal narcissist who lived to impress his distortions of reality upon souls weaker than his own- which Storrow had, misguidedly, taken hers to be.”
― Robin Kirman, Bradstreet Gate

“There was no good or bad, just people with more or less power angling to get what they wanted, one way or another, chewing up people like him and spitting them out in the process. It seemed like the only ones who didn't use their power over others were those who didn't have any.”
― Garrett Godsey, The Rivener