--- title: "4 Political power Quotes By Wendell Berry" description: "4 Political power quotes by Wendell Berry. Plus more from Wendell Berry and more Political power sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/060/wendell-berry-236_alignment_the-great-enemy-of-freedom-is-the-alignm_201574.jpg" --- > [The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-great-enemy-of-freedom-is-the-alignment-of-political-power-with/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/060/wendell-berry-236_alignment_the-great-enemy-of-freedom-is-the-alignm_201574.jpg) > [“This economy is based upon consumption, which ultimately serves, not the ordinary consumers, but a tiny class of excessively wealthy people for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/this-economy-is-based-upon-consumption-which-ultimately-serves-not/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e4/wendell-berry-236_economics_this-economy-is-based-upon-consumption-w_1111229.jpg) > [“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/in-a-society-in-which-nearly-everybody-is-dominated-by-somebody-else/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/825/wendell-berry-236_business_in-a-society-in-which-nearly-everybody-i_1257342.jpg) > [A proper community, we should remember also, is a commonwealth: a place, a resource, an economy. It answers the needs, practical as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/a-proper-community-we-should-remember-also-is-a-commonwealth-a-place/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/494/wendell-berry-236_alignment_a-proper-community-we-should-remember-al_3024675.jpg) ## Other authors on Political power - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b007/author-daron-acemoglu-26873.jpg) Daron Acemoğlu 13 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/political-power/daron-acemo-lu/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b019/author-plato-75782.jpg) Plato 6 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/political-power/plato/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b003/author-alexander-whyte-11059.jpg) Robert Caro 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/political-power/robert-caro/) - [ ![](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/uploads/sms4s/authors/processed/b011/author-howard-zinn-42481.jpg) Howard Zinn 5 quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/political-power/howard-zinn/) ## More by Wendell Berry > [During the last 17 years... I have been working at the restoration of a once exhausted hillside. Its scars are now healed over, though…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/during-the-last-17-years-i-have-been-working-at-the-restoration-of-a/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [Like the water of a deep stream, love is always too much. We did not make it. Though we drink till we burst, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/like-the-water-of-a-deep-stream-love-is-always-too-much-we-did-not/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [To husband is to use with care, to keep, to save, to make last, to conserve. Old usage tells us that there is a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/to-husband-is-to-use-with-care-to-keep-to-save-to-make-last-to/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [“The two families, sundered in the ruin of a friendship, were united again first in new friendship and then in mariage. My grandfather made…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-two-families-sundered-in-the-ruin-of-a-friendship-were-united/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [The living can't quit living because the world has turned terrible and people they love and need are killed. They can't because they don't.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-living-can-t-quit-living-because-the-world-has-turned-terrible/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [“I knew a man who, in the age of chain-saws, went right on cutting his wood with a handsaw and an axe. He was…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/i-knew-a-man-who-in-the-age-of-chain-saws-went-right-on-cutting-his/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [“The concept of country, homeland, dwelling place becomes simplified as "the environment" -- that is, what surrounds us, we have already made a profound…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-concept-of-country-homeland-dwelling-place-becomes-simplified-as/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/a-community-is-the-mental-and-spiritual-condition-of-knowing-that-the/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [“That we can prescribe the terms of our own success, that we can live outside or in ignorance of the Great Economy are the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/that-we-can-prescribe-the-terms-of-our-own-success-that-we-can-live/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [“The mind that comes to rest is tended In ways that it cannot intend: Is borne, preserved, and comprehended By what it cannot comprehend.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-mind-that-comes-to-rest-is-tended-in-ways-that-it-cannot-intend/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [The mercy of the world is time. Time does not stop for love, but it does not stop for death and grief, either.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-mercy-of-the-world-is-time-time-does-not-stop-for-love-but-it/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/the-soil-is-the-great-connector-of-our-lives-the-source-and/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [I dislike the thought that some animal has been made miserable to feed me. If I am going to eat meat, I want it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/i-dislike-the-thought-that-some-animal-has-been-made-miserable-to/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/laughter-is-immeasurable-be-joyful/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [These are people who are capable of devotion, public devotion, to justice. They meant what they said and every day that passes, they mean…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/these-are-people-who-are-capable-of-devotion-public-devotion-to/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/political-power/wendell-berry/#itemlist", "name": "4 Political power Quotes By Wendell Berry", "numberOfItems": 4, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. 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The purchased governments do not act in the interest of the governed and their country; they act instead as agents for the corporations.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wendell Berry" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/this-economy-is-based-upon-consumption-which-ultimately-serves-not/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e4/wendell-berry-236_economics_this-economy-is-based-upon-consumption-w_1111229.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e4/wendell-berry-236_economics_this-economy-is-based-upon-consumption-w_1111229.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4e4/wendell-berry-236_economics_this-economy-is-based-upon-consumption-w_1111229.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“This economy is based upon consumption, which ultimately serves, not the ordinary consumers, but a tiny…” — Wendell Berry", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one's own place and economy. In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers... Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else's legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed? The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth - that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community - and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Wendell Berry" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/in-a-society-in-which-nearly-everybody-is-dominated-by-somebody-else/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/825/wendell-berry-236_business_in-a-society-in-which-nearly-everybody-i_1257342.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/825/wendell-berry-236_business_in-a-society-in-which-nearly-everybody-i_1257342.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/825/wendell-berry-236_business_in-a-society-in-which-nearly-everybody-i_1257342.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else's mind or by a disembodied mind, it…” — Wendell Berry", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "A proper community, we should remember also, is a commonwealth: a place, a resource, an economy. 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