Omnipotence

Omnipotence is the quality of having unlimited power. Monotheistic religions generally attribute omnipotence only to the deity of their faith. In the monotheistic religious philosophy of Abrahamic religions, omnipotence is often listed as one of a deity's characteristics, along with omniscience, omnipresence, and omnibenevolence. The presence of all these properties in a single entity has given rise to considerable theological debate, prominently including the problem of evil, the question of why such a deity would permit the existence of evil. It is accepted in philosophy and science that omnipotence can never be effectively understood.

Quotes

 * Those who desire to rise as high as our human condition allows, must renounce intellectual pride, the omnipotence of clear thinking, belief in the absolute power of logic.
 * Alexis Carrel in: Saiva Siddhanta, Volume 21, Saiva Siddhanta Mahasamajam., 1986, p. 59.


 * For He is called omnipotent on account of His doing what He wills, not on account of His suffering what He wills not; for if that should befall Him, He would by no means be omnipotent. Wherefore, He cannot do some things for the very reason that He is omnipotent.
 * Augustine of Hippo in: St. Augustine's City of God and Christian Doctrine: Chapter 10.—Whether Our Wills are Ruled by Necessity, ccel.org


 * It is with men as with wheat; the light heads are erect even in the presence of Omnipotence, but the full heads bow in reverence before Him.
 * Joseph Cook; reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 484.


 * Who is all-powerful should fear everything.
 * Pierre Cornielle, Cinna, Act IV, scene ii (1640).


 * Clearly, the Scripture tells us that we lack the capacity to grasp God's infinite mind or the way He intervenes in our lives. How arrogant of us to think otherwise! Trying to analyze His omnipotence is like an amoeba attempting to comprehend the behavior of man.
 * James Dobson in: Bill Bradfield On Reading the Bible: Thoughts and Reflections of Over 500 Men and Women, from St. Augustine to Oprah Winfrey, Courier Dover Publications, Jul 12, 2012.


 * You rodent, I'm omnipotent Let off then I'm reloading Immediately with these bombs I'm totin' And I should not be woken.
 * Eminem, "Rap God", The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013).


 * Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence.
 * J. William Fulbright in: Marie Suarez, Mariu Suarez Beyond Homo Sapiens: Enlightened Faith, Xlibris Corporation, May 31, 2011, p. 497.


 * The omnipotence of evil has never resulted in anything but fruitless efforts. Our thoughts always escape from whoever tries to smother them.
 * Victor Hugo in: Iam A. Freeman Seeds of Revolution: A Collection of Axioms, Passages and Proverbs ..., Volume 1, iUniverse, 26 March 2014 p. 520.


 * And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent or omniscient—that we are only 6 percent of the world's population—that we cannot impose our will upon the other 94 percent of mankind—that we cannot right every wrong or reverse every adversity—and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem.
 * John F. Kennedy, address at the University of Washington's 100th anniversary program, Seattle, Washington (November 16, 1961); in The Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, p. 726.


 * Disbelief is the only possible revenge for omnipotence.
 * Chris Lawson, Written in Blood (Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction June, 1999)


 * His Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to his power. If you choose to say 'God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it,' you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words 'God can.'... It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of his creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because his power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.
 * C. S. Lewis in: The Problem of Pain. Zondervan, 1944, p. 18.


 * Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.
 * C. S. Lewis, in "God in the Dock" (1948).


 * If you get into these spaces [non-ordinary states of consciousness] at all, you must forget about them when you come back. You must forget you're omnipotent and omniscient and take the game seriously so you'll engage in sex, have children, and participate in the whole human scenario. When you come back from a deep tank session — or a coma or psychosis —there's always this extraterrestrial feeling. You have to read the directions in the glove compartment so you can run the human vehicle once more.
 * John C. Lilly Tanks for the Memories : Floatation Tank Talks (1995)


 * It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.
 * H. L. Mencken in: Donald M Simanek, John. Holden Science Askew: A Light-hearted Look at the Scientific World, CRC Press, Oct 1, 2001,


 * A work of skill, surpassing sense, A labor of Omnipotence; Though frail as dust it meet thine eye, He form'd this gnat who built the sky.
 * James Montgomery, The Gnat; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 315.


 * Can omniscient God, who Knows the future, find The Omnipotence to Change His future mind?
 * Karen Owens in: The God Delusion, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Jan 16, 2008, p. 101.


 * If I were granted omnipotence, and millions of years to experiment in, I should not think Man much to boast of as the final result of all my efforts.
 * Bertrand Russell, Religion and Science


 * There is the instance of the Gadarene swine, where it certainly was not very kind to the pigs to put the devils into them and make them rush down the hill into the sea. You must remember that He was omnipotent, and He could have made the devils simply go away; but He chose to send them into the pigs. Then there is the curious story of the fig-tree, which always rather puzzled me. You remember what happened about the fig-tree. "He was hungry; and seeing a fig-tree afar off having leaves, He came if haply He might find anything thereon; and when he came to it He found nothing but leaves, for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it: 'No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever'.... and Peter.... saith unto Him: 'Master, behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away.'" This is a very curious story, because it was not the right time of year for figs, and you really could not blame the tree. I cannot myself feel that either in the matter of wisdom or in the matter of virtue Christ stands quite as high as some other people known to History. I think I should put Buddha and Socrates above Him in those respects.
 * Bertrand Russell, Why I am not a Christian (March 6, 1927).


 * A child's cry touches a father's heart, and our King is the Father of his people. If we can do no more than cry it will bring omnipotence to our aid. A cry is the native language of a spiritually needy soul; it has done with fine phrases and long orations, and it takes to sobs and moans; and so, indeed, it grasps the most potent of all weapons, for heaven always yields to such artillery.
 * Charles H. Spurgeon in: The Treasury of David, Hendrickson Publishers, 1990, p. 230.


 * It is the final proof of God's omnipotence that he need not exist in order to save us.
 * Peter De Vries, The Mackerel Plaza (1958), p. 8.