Might makes right
the view that morality is, or ought to be, determined by those in power
"Might makes right" or "might is right" is an aphorism that asserts that having superior strength or power gives one the ability to control society and enforce one's own agenda, beliefs, concepts of justice, and so on. Montague defined kratocracy or kraterocracy (from the Ancient Greek: κράτος, romanized: krátos, lit. 'might; strength') as a government by those strong enough to seize control through violence or deceit.
"Might makes right" has been described as the credo of totalitarian regimes. The sociologist Max Weber analyzed the relations between a state's power and its moral authority in Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Realist scholars of international politics use the phrase to describe the "state of nature" in which power determines the relations among sovereign states.
History
The idea, though not the wording, has been attributed to the History of the Peloponnesian War, written around 410 BC by the ancient historian Thucydides, who stated that "right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
In the first chapter of Plato's Republic, authored around 375 BC Thrasymachus claims that "justice is nothing else than the interest of the stronger", which Socrates then disputes. Callicles in Gorgias argues similarly that the strong should rule the weak, as a right owed to their superiority.
The Book of Wisdom, written around the first century BC to first century AD, describes the reasoning of the wicked: "Let us oppress the righteous poor man; let us not spare the widow nor regard the gray hairs of the aged. But let our might be our law of right, for what is weak proves itself to be useless."
The related idea of "woe to the conquered" is stated in Livy's History of Rome, in which the similar Latin phrase "vae victis" is first recorded.
An early instance of the phrase in English is found in Tottel's Miscellany (1557): "Trouth is folly: and might is right".
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Might makes right” is the view that morality is, or ought to be, determined by those in power. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Might, makes and right, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3258484. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1557.
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This entry incorporates text from “Might makes right” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.