Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.
Interpretation
Just because someone has power doesn't mean they are right.
This quote by Samuel Johnson suggests that authority or power does not inherently validate a person's beliefs or assertions. It serves as a warning against accepting claims or ideas solely based on the status of the individual presenting them, emphasizing the importance of critical thinking and discernment in evaluating the truth.
In practice
In a debate on ethics, one might use this quote to emphasize that moral positions should not be based on someone's power.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
The imbalance results from ideologies which uphold the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation, and thus deny the right of control to States, which are themselves charged with providing for the common good.
Birth, death, and suffering all bring us to the very edge of what our minds can understand.
There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.
News networks giving a greater voice to viewers because the social web is so popular are like a chef on the Titanic who, seeing the looming iceberg and fleeing customers, figures ice is the future and starts making snow cones.
Until the day arrives when all women decide that our rights are not negotiable, our future choices will not be secure.
Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are in my opinion more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality. Freedom of speech, freedom of religious thought, and the right to due process for composers, performers and retailers are imperiled if the PMRC and the major labels consummate this nasty bargain.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.