Quotes About Manipulation

Cecil flashed a grin. "Quite. Plus your rather irritating habit of treating your superior officers as your, ah . . ." Cecil paused, apparently groping again for just the right word. "Equals?" Miles hazarded. "Cattle," Cecil corrected judiciously. "To be driven to your will. You're a manipulator par excellence, Vorkosigan. I've been studying you for three years now, and your group dynamics are fascinating. Whether

There it is! Do it or I'll have (my mother) do it for you! How's that for a threat? Effective.

Stop... toying with me. When I toy with you, you'll know it-and enjoy it.

We're never suspicious enough of words, they look like nothing much, not at all dangerous, just little puffs of air, little sounds the mouth makes, neither hot nor cold and easily absorbed, once they reach the ear, by the vast gray boredom of the brain. We're not suspicious enough of words, and calamity strikes.

Lie to a liar, for lies are his coin; steal from a thief, for that is easy; lay a trap for the trickster and catch him at the first attempt, but beware of an honest man. (said by the author to be a Somali saying)

If at any time your Prince should pretend your position with him is sure, begin from that moment to feel unsure.

the Viper who had plans to invade America from within. Using money as a weapon, he controlled newspaper, radio and recording businesses to further his propaganda efforts and incite an internal rebellion.

Give me a dollar or I'll spit on you.

Yes, you do. You get everything you want out of people. I don't know how you do it, but you are a born wheedler. Thank you. Fire away.

While Rockefeller communicated with his subordinates in genteel fashion, discussing muscular tactics with unctuous euphemisms, his colleagues were less restrained and gloried in their brutal shenanigans.

While they thought they were leading me into a trap, I let them go into the trap themselves.

Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. (Thomas Jefferson)

Through such trusts, he would convert financiers from servants to masters of their clients.

Whenever he was about to commit some particularly heinous act, he first found a character flaw in the victim then proceeded with a serene conscience.

He "has so happy a faculty of appearing to accommodate and yet carrying his point, that if he was really not one of the best-intentioned men in the world, he might be a very dangerous one," observed Abigail Adams.

For Rockefeller, Rice was nothing but a blackmailer.

Rockefeller worked by subtle hints, doling out praise sparingly to employees and nudging them along.

It was too easy to camouflage selfish impulses by invoking a higher cause as the real cause.

To ensure that he won, he submitted to games only where he could dictate the rules.

Hamilton said, he would follow the classic path of a populist demagogue: "I would mount the hobbyhorse of popularity, I would cry out usurpation, danger

By 1907, however, they had exploited enough legal loopholes to become highly speculative.

I won her over the same way I hunted - loping after the fawn I wanted to eat, never in a hurry, making it a game, tiring her out, nipping at her heels playfully until eventually she almost wanted me to break her neck and open her up like a purse.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

People afraid of outsiders are easily manipulated. The warrior caste, supposedly society's protectors, often become protection racketeers. In times of war or crisis, power is easily stolen from the many by the few on a promise of security. The more elusive or imaginary the foe, the better for manufacturing consent. The Inquisition did a roaring trade against the Devil.