1. About as influential as the ‘p’ in pneumonia and the ‘k’ in knitting —Anon
2. Aggressive as an elbow in the side —Henry James
3. As omnipotent and as full of faults as Jove —Wallace Stegner
4. Authority shrivelled as muslin in a fire —Vita Sackville-West
5. Authority without wisdom is like a heavy ax without an edge, fitter to bruise than to polish —Anne Bradstreet
6. Compelling as a gun at your head —Anon
7. [Choice to do something] compelling as the sense of vocation which doctors and missionaries are supposed to experience —John Braine
8. (He is) consuming … like a candle —Richard Flecknoe
9. Feel like a lion in a den of Daniels —W. S. Gilbert
10. Strong [a person’s pull on others] as a riptide —Reynolds Price
11. Glows with power like a successful shaman —Marge Piercy
12. Had a ring of authority, like monarchy —Barbara Lazear Ascher
13. Immoderate power, like other intemperance, leaves the progeny weaker and weaker, until Nature, as [if] in compassion, covers it with her mantle and is seen no more —Walter Savage Landor
14. Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you’ve got —Andrew Young
15. Influential as gnats —Susan Heller Anderson
16. It’s like a Dead Sea fruit. When you achieve it, there is nothing there —Harold Macmillan, Parade, July 7, 1963
17. Like wealth and power, prestige tends to be cumulative: the more of it you have, the more you can get —C. Wright Mills
18. Made him fetch and carry just as if he was a great Newfoundland dog —William Makepeace Thackeray
19. (But her looks have) no power over me … like a tug on a tree on a limb that has lost feeling —William Getz
20. Once a man of power, always a man of power. Like being a Boy Scout —Anthony Powell
21. (Memories … ) powerful as floods —Elizabeth Spencer
22. Power [in the Middle East] gravitates towards radicals like iron filings toward a magnet —Karen Elliott House
23. Power, like a desolating pestilence, pollutes whatever it touches —Percy Bysshe Shelley

    ’Whatever’ replaces the old English ‘whate’er.’

24. Power, like lightning, injures before its warning —Pedro Calderon de la Barca
25. Power, like the diamond, dazzles the beholder, and also the wearer —Charles Caleb Colton
26. The right of commanding … like an inheritance, it is the fruit of labors, the price of courage —Voltaire
27. To rule must be a calling, it seems, like surgery or sculpture —W. H. Auden
28. Scenting power like blood —Janet Flanner
29. Seemed the personification of brute strength … like a gorilla dripped in peroxide —Donald Seaman
30. Strode like a colossus over the [White House] staff —Dean Rusk, New York Times March 1, 1987

    Rusk used this image to compare Lyndon Johnson’s control over the White House staff to Ronald Reagan’s delegation of power.

31. Swept me ahead of her like a leaf —Elizabeth Bishop
32. There was authority in his attitude … and its heat threatened to melt Bird [name of character] like a piece of candy —Kenzaburo Oë
33. They pass him on from hand to hand, like a baton in a relay race, and he ultimately becomes a puppet manipulated by others —Vladmir Solovyou and Elena Klopikova
34. To add a little weight to his argument he put a hand like a bunch of bananas flat on my chest —Jimmy Sangster
35. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered —Thomas Paine

come on like gangbusters To burst upon the scene with noisy exuberance; to come on with great power or force; to be officious or overbearing at first meeting. This expression derives from the blaring sound effects that opened a 1936 radio program called Gangbusters. These included the sounds of marching feet, machine-gun fire, and a screaming siren.

money talks Wealth means power; almost anything can be secured with money. This expression alludes to the way money and its procurement direct one’s life, as well as to the automatic respect and deference given to the wealthy by the less affluent.

the powers that be The authorities; a group or individual exercising complete control and having the power to make decisions affecting large numbers of people. This phrase is Biblical in origin.

It is implied that “the powers that be” are impersonal and inaccessible.

pull rank To make use of one’s higher status in order to obtain a desired objective. This expression originated in the armed forces, where one of subordinate rank must comply absolutely with the orders of a superior. The term is now also applied to civilians, particularly in describing certain employeremployee interactions. In either case, the expression usually suggests the unexpected or unfair use of authority in resolving a dilemma or in demanding submission.

throw one’s weight around To exert one’s influence inappropriately or unfairly, to pull strings; to lord it over subordinates, to pull rank. Weight, meaning ‘power or influence,’ probably derives from the advantage of added pounds or extra weight in contact sports.