Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Content or substance can hinder the exercise of power.
In plain terms
Having real substance can make it harder to control things.
What can you take from it?
Power often prefers simplicity over complex content.

Where it applies

  • management
  • media
  • bureaucracy

Putting it to work

  • prioritize substance in decision making
  • be wary of empty content

Questions to consider

  • Does content always resist power?
  • When is content useful?

Another view

This view may ignore cases where content strengthens power.

More from John Ralston Saul

  1. The transnational corporations and the money markets have declared the era of human-designed regulations over. Now the market must reign. Because few people in…

    Permalink to quote #42
  2. United States: .... A nation given either to unjustified over-enthusiasms or infantile furies.

    Permalink to quote #44
  3. 'The recession is over.' This phrase has been used twice a year since 1973 by government leaders throughout the West. Its meaning is unclear. See: Depression.

    Permalink to quote #41

Related quotes

  1. ...no bloody or unbloody change of society can eradicate the evil in man: as long as there will be men, there will be malice, envy and hatred, and hence there …

    Leo StraussLeo Strauss quote #1
  2. Woe to you, my Princess, when I come... you shall see who is the stronger, a gentle girl who doesn't eat enough or a big wild man who has cocaine in his body.

    Sigmund FreudSigmund Freud quote #1
  3. If you did not suffer from emotions, from feelings, you could be as powerful as we are.

    Stirling SilliphantStirling Silliphant quote #1