"The wish to have power over others is altogether alien to me; I just don’t get it....I don’t even like being waited on by people I’d rather have a beer with; I’m uncomfortable holding the meager (and mostly illusory) power of grades over my students."
"However: Doing what I want, and not being made to do things I don’t want to do, has been one of my main priorities in adulthood..."
"I would define power as the ability to make other people do what you want; freedom is the ability to do what you want.... Freedom is the defensive, or pre-emptive, form of power: the power that’s necessary to resist all the power the world attempts to exert over us from day one."
"Who was ultimately more powerful: the conqueror Alexander, who ruled the known world, or the philosopher Diogenes, whom Alexander could neither offer nor threaten with anything?"
"As with most artists, my fondest worldly goal is to be left alone: I dream of an empire the size of my apartment. Which is less attainable than it sounds."
... other writings by Tim Kreider
