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Anime and Manga
"Weakness is a sin."
— Yuichirou Kanzaki and Supremacy Black Dragon, Aurageyser Damned, Cardfight!! Vanguard
"Might makes right. What a great time to be alive. The strong can claim whatever they desire as their own."
— Shin, Fist of the North Star
"Might makes right and might alone! Without strength, we have nothing! If I don't win, then all my effort, all I've struggled to achieve, all of it will have been pointless! I'll lose everything, just like I did before... and I absolutely refuse to go through that again!"
— Jiren, Dragon Ball Super
"Brats like you sure know how to pass the blame. It's no good. I don't really hold a grudge against 'em about my eye. I killed 'em, just like I wanted to. And they tried to stop me. We all did our best and had to deal with the results. What's bad is when you can't put your money where your mouth is... like your dear mommy and daddy!"
— Muscular, My Hero Academia
"Pirates are evil!? The Marines are righteous?! Ha! These terms have always changed throughout the course of history! Kids who have never seen peace and kids who have never seen war will always grow up with different values! Therefore, those who stand at the top determine what's wrong and what's right! Justice will prevail, you say!? Damn right it will! And that's because whoever wins this war becomes justice!"
— Doflamingo, One Piece
Comic Books
Mace Windu: The Yinchorri believe that if they're strong enough to take something and hold on to it, it is, by rights, theirs.
Oppo Rancisis: "Might makes right". A short-sighted philosophy, and one that is often recanted upon meeting a more powerful adversary.
Oppo Rancisis: "Might makes right". A short-sighted philosophy, and one that is often recanted upon meeting a more powerful adversary.
"Nancy, the road you're on ends the one in charge being the strongest one there is. And that's the Hulk. And if you ask me, I think there are better ways to live than on some sort of 'Planet Hulk' where a furious rage monster decides everything. Might doesn't make right, Nancy. Might just makes you better at punching. I know you'll make the right decision."
— Squirrel Girl, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
Fan Works
"You may be big, mean, and don't care about hurting people, but that doesn't give you the right to do whatever you please! Nobody has that right! We're all stuck living together in this world, and if you want to try and make it a 'dog eat dog' world then you're gonna find there's plenty of dogs around bigger and meaner than you, buster! If you really care about Posey, then you're gonna stop pushing her around this instant and be a good and loyal dog for her. Otherwise I'm going to have to teach you a very harsh lesson you don't want to experience."
— Fluttershy to Kyoki telling him what a terrible idea that is, Equestria Girls: Friendship Souls
Film — Animated
There is a principle of nature
That most every creature knows
It's called survival of the fittest
And this is how it goes:
The animal that wins has got to
Claw and bite and kick and punch
The animal that doesn't winds up someone else's lunch!
That most every creature knows
It's called survival of the fittest
And this is how it goes:
The animal that wins has got to
Claw and bite and kick and punch
The animal that doesn't winds up someone else's lunch!
"This is a world where the strong rule, and you are the strongest of all of us. Remember when we were small, Somishka? How I used to save you from those bullies? Now you must save all of us."
— Svetlana, Superman: Red Son
"Rule number one. He who has the power, makes the rules. Obvious."
— Manchester Black, Superman vs. the Elite
Film — Live-Action
"Today I saw a soldier kill a man and I learnt something. In this world, we can do anything if we have guns!"
— Paul, Bullet in the Head
Darth Vader: Calrissian, take the princess and the Wookiee to my ship.
Lando Calrissian: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision.
Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
Lando Calrissian: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision.
Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.
"We have been forced into a conflict, for we are called to meet the challenge of a principle, which, if it were to prevail, would be fatal to any civilized order in the world. Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that 'might is right'."
— King George VI, The King's Speech
Yusuf: She bears no mark.
Sinbad: Nonsense! All ships bear identity! It's the law of the sea!
Yusuf: Law? What law is stronger than strength?
Sinbad: Nonsense! All ships bear identity! It's the law of the sea!
Yusuf: Law? What law is stronger than strength?
Literature
"The first requirement of being a hero isn't being right. It's being strong. That's why the hero always wins."
— Araragi Koyomi, Bakemonogatari
(T)hey have a right to do anything we can't stop them from doing.
— Catch-22
"Might is the answer; I forgot the question."
— Eighinn Stossuhl, Eclipse
There is only power. Power is of the individual mind but the mind's power is not enough. Power of the body decides everything in the end and only might is right.
"Listen, then," [Thrasymachus] said; "I proclaim that justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger."
"The strong get what they deserve. So do the weak."
— Gary Gitmoe, Tom Swift: Mind Games
Live-Action TV
"Forgive me, Khaleesi, but your ancestor Aegon the Conqueror didn't seize six of the kingdoms because they were his right. He had no right to them. He seized them because he could."
— Ser Jorah Mormont, Game of Thrones
If there are gods, they do not help, and justice belongs to the strong; but know that all things done before the naked stars are remembered.
— Klingon proverb, Star Trek
Baldur: You think you own the planet. What gives you the right?
[Baldur charges at Lucifer, who rams a hand through his chest and out his back]
Lucifer: No one gives us the right. We take it.
[Baldur charges at Lucifer, who rams a hand through his chest and out his back]
Lucifer: No one gives us the right. We take it.
Music
The Viking promise I have made
Sets fire in my bones.
The world is cold, the world is hard
The weak man falls and groans.
I have come to rid this wretched land
Of lesser men than I.
For the gods above demand it.
They say that they must die!
Sets fire in my bones.
The world is cold, the world is hard
The weak man falls and groans.
I have come to rid this wretched land
Of lesser men than I.
For the gods above demand it.
They say that they must die!
Gold is for the mistress — silver for the maid —
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
"Good!" cried the Baron, sitting in his hall
"But iron, cold iron, is the master of them all."
So he made rebellion 'gainst the King, his liege,
Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege.
"Nay," said the cannoneer on the castle wall
"But iron, cold iron, shall be master of you all!"
Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong,
When the cruel cannon-balls laid them all along
He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall,
And iron, cold iron, was the master over all.
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
"Good!" cried the Baron, sitting in his hall
"But iron, cold iron, is the master of them all."
So he made rebellion 'gainst the King, his liege,
Camped before his citadel and summoned it to siege.
"Nay," said the cannoneer on the castle wall
"But iron, cold iron, shall be master of you all!"
Woe for the Baron and his knights so strong,
When the cruel cannon-balls laid them all along
He was taken prisoner, he was cast in thrall,
And iron, cold iron, was the master over all.
— Rudyard Kipling, "Cold Iron
"
" Mythology and Religion
Let us oppress the righteous poor;
let us neither spare the widow
nor revere the aged for hair grown white with time.
But let our strength be our norm of righteousness;
for weakness proves itself useless.
let us neither spare the widow
nor revere the aged for hair grown white with time.
But let our strength be our norm of righteousness;
for weakness proves itself useless.
— The Bible, Wisdom 2:10-11 (from the Apocrypha)
Poetry
Gold is for the mistress — silver for the maid —
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
"But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all."
Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.
"Good!" said the Baron, sitting in his hall,
"But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all."
— Rudyard Kipling, Cold Iron
Theatre
"Force should be right; or rather, right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too."
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too."
— Ulysseus, Troilus and Cressida
Video Games
"Ideas don't determine who's right. Power determines who's right. And I have the power... so I'm right."
— Jonathan Irons, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
Imagine three great nations under three great queens. The first queen writes a great book of law and her rule is just. The second queen builds a high tower and her people climb it to see the stars. The third queen raises an army and conquers everything.
The future belongs to one of these queens. Her rule is harshest and her people are unhappy. But she rules.
This explains everything, understand? This is why the universe is the way it is, and not some other way. Existence is a game that everything plays, and some strategies are winners: the ability to exist, to shape existence, to remake it so that your descendants — molecules or stars or people or ideas — will flourish, and others will find no ground to grow.
And as the universe ticks on towards the close, the great players will face each other. In the next round there will be three queens and all of them will have armies, and now it will be a battle of swords — until one discovers the cannon, or the plague, or the killing word.
The future belongs to one of these queens. Her rule is harshest and her people are unhappy. But she rules.
This explains everything, understand? This is why the universe is the way it is, and not some other way. Existence is a game that everything plays, and some strategies are winners: the ability to exist, to shape existence, to remake it so that your descendants — molecules or stars or people or ideas — will flourish, and others will find no ground to grow.
And as the universe ticks on towards the close, the great players will face each other. In the next round there will be three queens and all of them will have armies, and now it will be a battle of swords — until one discovers the cannon, or the plague, or the killing word.
Of Oryx, that admirable monarch, I have only a little to say. Why? Because He is all in the action, fellow traveler, His philosophy is all on display. He has twinned himself so closely to the power He admires. He has become many-placed, many-formed, sending out emissaries of himself to ask after the truth.
In each act of His power Oryx seeks to incarnate the self-sustaining, immortal suzerainty that He worships. The power that He uses to wash his Taken clean and etch them into useful shapes.
Oryx inhabits a world where power is truth. To win is to be noble, and to be real. When He departs from that world, out into the material universe, He is lessened.
The echoes of Oryx go forth to ask a question: are you the truth?
In each act of His power Oryx seeks to incarnate the self-sustaining, immortal suzerainty that He worships. The power that He uses to wash his Taken clean and etch them into useful shapes.
Oryx inhabits a world where power is truth. To win is to be noble, and to be real. When He departs from that world, out into the material universe, He is lessened.
The echoes of Oryx go forth to ask a question: are you the truth?
— Toland the Shattered, Destiny, "Grimoire: Echoes of Oryx"
"Might controls everything, and without strength you cannot protect anything, let alone yourself."
— Vergil, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening
If you steal from another [of House] Telvanni, but still live, then clearly you deserve whatever you stole. Murdering your opponents by magic or treachery is the traditional way of settling disputes. If you win, then clearly your argument has more merit.
"No matter what circumstances my opponent has, all I'll think is 'I see, there’s that opinion too.' Then, if I cleanly cut my opponent down, I'm in the right. The fight's over with that. On the other hand, if I fall without defeating them, then I was in the wrong. And there, my fight will end."
— Miyamoto Musashi, Fate/Grand Order: Cosmos in the Lostbelt
"I've been thinking about how we've got our own ideas about justice...and so does the Kingdom/Empire. And what's coming, it's not just a battle between us and them. It's our ideals that are fighting. Whoever wins will say they were right and the other side was wrong. And I get it. That's how it goes... But nobody's willing to talk or compromise, so we'll fight to the death to prove the other guy's wrong."
— Sylvain, Fire Emblem: Three Houses
"Vae victis!"Translation
— Kain, Legacy of Kain
"Power is strength. Strength is everything!"
— Mashtooth, The Legendary Starfy
"Might makes right, don't you fuck with me. You know what? Fuck this war, I just want you dead."
— Senator Armstrong, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
"I have a dream! That one day every person in this nation will control their own destiny. A land of the truly free, dammit. A nation of action, not words, ruled by strength, not committee! Where the law changes to suit the individual, not the other way around. Where power and justice are back where they belong: in the hands of the people! Where every man is free to think — to act — for himself! Fuck all these limp-dick lawyers and chickenshit bureaucrats. Fuck this 24-hour Internet spew of trivia and celebrity bullshit! Fuck American pride! Fuck the media! FUCK ALL OF IT! America is diseased. Rotten to the core. There's no saving it — we need to pull it out by the roots. Wipe the slate clean. BURN IT DOWN! And from the ashes a new America will be born. Evolved, but untamed! The weak will be purged and the strongest will thrive — free to live as they see fit, they'll make America great again! ...In my new America, people will die and kill for what they BELIEVE! Not for money. Not for oil! Not for what they're told is right. Every man will be free to fight his own wars!"
— Senator Steven Armstrong, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
"Hadar... sen olmen."Translation
— Raven Beak, Metroid Dread
"In this world, the strong take while the weak quake!"
— Makk the pirate, Octopath Traveler
"The only thing that can defeat power is more power. That is the one constant in this universe."
— Albert Wesker, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles
"Only power yields victory. Only strength can rule. Only fools think otherwise."
— Dong Zhuo, Total War: Three Kingdoms
Webcomics
It is said the greatest warrior-kings may sublime violence and forget all they learn about the sword. This is true. But the only true path to kingship lies through regicide.
— Meti's Sword Manual, Kill Six Billion Demons
"So say I. This is the Law of Kings, Either make it your own — or know your place.
— Solomon David, Kill Six Billion Demons
''"If you don't want to get bossed around or mocked by the people around you... you just need to become stronger."'
— Garou, One-Punch Man
Toahdfrohg Captain: You have no right to pass judgment on me!
Petey: Per your own actions, you appear to believe might makes right.
Toahdfrohg Captain: I don't like where this is going.
Petey: Oh, good. I was hoping you wouldn't.
Petey: Per your own actions, you appear to believe might makes right.
Toahdfrohg Captain: I don't like where this is going.
Petey: Oh, good. I was hoping you wouldn't.
"[Tessa] just uses her flashier powers as an excuse to boss us around! [...] It would be one thing if she was just the strongest, but it’s obvious, right!? She thinks she's actually more important than us!"
— Sally Fintan, Sleepless Domain
Professor Gurwara: We stand now in Brooklyn. This region's greatest philosophers once carefully observed that you must fight for your right, among other things, to party. And yet still others of your countrymen would remark that our deepest rights are inalienable, endowed by our Creator. Does this seem to pose a contradiction? Are our rights inalienable, or in fact, extremely alienable?
Alison: So what are you getting at here? It's starting to sound pretty damn cynical, like you're circling around just saying "Might Makes Right."
Gurwara: ...Would that be so incorrect?
Alison: No! No, no, no! I reject that fundamentally. I cannot make what I did okay by just saying "well, I'm strong, so it's fine."
Gurwara: Of course not! That is not what I said! Look around you! What does this world know of justice or freedom? It knows claw and fang. It knows want and need. It knows power. We may balance our stories on its back, but the world gave you the only authority it truly understands when it made you strong. You wish to call me a cynic because I see that the rights of the fish have always ended at the jaws of the shark? Very well. Might Makes Right is not an endorsement. It is the tired admission of an old man.
This region's greatest philosophers once carefully observed that you must fight for your right, among other things, to party. And yet still others of your countrymen would remark that our deepest rights are inalienable, endowed by our Creator. Does this seem to pose a contradiction? Are our rights inalienable, or in fact, extremely alienable?Alison: So what are you getting at here? It's starting to sound pretty damn cynical, like you're circling around just saying "Might Makes Right."
Gurwara: ...Would that be so incorrect?
Alison: No! No, no, no! I reject that fundamentally. I cannot make what I did okay by just saying "well, I'm strong, so it's fine."
Gurwara: Of course not! That is not what I said! Look around you! What does this world know of justice or freedom? It knows claw and fang. It knows want and need. It knows power. We may balance our stories on its back, but the world gave you the only authority it truly understands when it made you strong. You wish to call me a cynic because I see that the rights of the fish have always ended at the jaws of the shark? Very well. Might Makes Right is not an endorsement. It is the tired admission of an old man.
"The value and merit of all things is defined by how far we are willing to go to obtain them, and how far we are willing to go to defend them. Morality is no different. If it is not defended, it has no value. Without 'might,' there can be no 'right.' There's no need to demonize it."
— King Law Wight, Suppression
Web Videos
"Armstrong calls for a society built on nothing but personal strength. If you are strong enough to rule the world, then you should do it. If you're strong enough to fight and defeat your boss in mortal combat, then you should have his job. If you're strong enough to carry a woman off the street and drag her into your dungeon, then that's your new wife, baby! His vision would obviously make for a terrifying world, but I suspect that a lot of people would find it at least somewhat appealing. A lot of people would hear this and think to themselves, 'Well, that works for me, because I am strong! I am strong enough to do whatever I want if society would just get out of my way!'
Armstrong talks about purging the weak, but that's a truly insane statement. Because to 'purge the weak', you would have to purge literally everyone. The fact is, everyone is weak sometimes. Everyone has weaknesses. That's the reason we build families and communities. So that whatever your weakness is, someone with a compatible strength can cover for you, and vice-versa. In an ideal community, everyone works to their strengths and no one is destroyed by their weaknesses. But a lot of people either can't or won't recognize their own weaknesses, and so they would find Armstrong's worldview very appealing."
Armstrong talks about purging the weak, but that's a truly insane statement. Because to 'purge the weak', you would have to purge literally everyone. The fact is, everyone is weak sometimes. Everyone has weaknesses. That's the reason we build families and communities. So that whatever your weakness is, someone with a compatible strength can cover for you, and vice-versa. In an ideal community, everyone works to their strengths and no one is destroyed by their weaknesses. But a lot of people either can't or won't recognize their own weaknesses, and so they would find Armstrong's worldview very appealing."
Western Animation
"Here on our planet, back in the old days, back in the real old days, it was just every man for hisself. Scrooblin' and scrat-scroblin' for the good stuff, the greenest valleys, and scrat-scroblin'. And the strongest, meanest men got the best stuff. They got the green valleys and were like, 'The rest of you, y'all scrats get sand!' And that's when they made the laws, you see. Once the strong guys got it how they liked it, they said, 'This is fair now, this is the law.' Once they were winning, they changed the rules up."
— Jake, Adventure Time
"Weaponry! It's the way to get it done!
Weaponry! It's effective and it's fun!
If you want to make 'em fall on bended knee at your command,
Bow their heads and swear that you're the leader of the land,
State your wishes in a language they will understand,
With weaponry! That's the plan!
If power's on your shopping list,
Then use the elbow and the fist!
Pummel 'em until they get the gist!
Just make an example of
Representative sample of
And most of them will not be missed!
You can beat 'em up by any means,
Or blow 'em all to smithereens!
A favorite of this sentient machine!
Never mind the fatatlities
When there's municipalities,
To crush a set of
With the threat of
Weaponry! Will inspire Dr. D,
Weaponry! To have confidence in me!
If I'm gonna be a conqueror and win my father's love,
I'll take it to the people with the eagle, not the dove!
If there's one thing that obedience is symptomatic of,
It's W-E-A-P-O-N-R-Y
Weaponry! From above!"
Weaponry! It's effective and it's fun!
If you want to make 'em fall on bended knee at your command,
Bow their heads and swear that you're the leader of the land,
State your wishes in a language they will understand,
With weaponry! That's the plan!
If power's on your shopping list,
Then use the elbow and the fist!
Pummel 'em until they get the gist!
Just make an example of
Representative sample of
And most of them will not be missed!
You can beat 'em up by any means,
Or blow 'em all to smithereens!
A favorite of this sentient machine!
Never mind the fatatlities
When there's municipalities,
To crush a set of
With the threat of
Weaponry! Will inspire Dr. D,
Weaponry! To have confidence in me!
If I'm gonna be a conqueror and win my father's love,
I'll take it to the people with the eagle, not the dove!
If there's one thing that obedience is symptomatic of,
It's W-E-A-P-O-N-R-Y
Weaponry! From above!"
— Norm, Phineas and Ferb
"Who deserves what is irrelevant. What matters is who. Has. Power."
— Grand Admiral Thrawn, Star Wars Rebels, "Family Reunion and Farewell"
Real Life
But now, instead of discussion and argument, brute force rises up to the rescue of discomfited error, and crushes truth and right into the dust. "Might makes right," and hoary folly totters on in her mad career escorted by armies and navies.
— Adin Ballou
Treason doth never prosper. What's the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
— John Harington
"Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good."
— President Lyndon Johnson to the Greek ambassador
"The Pope disapproves? How many divisions does he have?"
You know as well as we that right, as this world goes, is only in question between equals in power; for the strong do as they will, and the weak suffer what they must.
— "The Melian Dialogue", Thucydides' History of The Peloponnesian War
Enough might makes what is right irrelevant.
— Many
Jus est in armis.Translation
— Seneca the Younger
Auctoritas non veritas facit legem.Translation
— Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
"A man with a gun can control a hundred without one."
"Justice is subject to dispute; might is easily recognised and is not disputed. So we cannot give might to justice, because might has gainsaid justice, and has declared that it is she herself who is just. And thus being unable to make what is just strong, we have made what is strong just."
—'"Pascal"'
