Quotes About Manipulation

the lie has become not just a moral category but a pillar of the State.

People think it's all a game," she said. "They don't care that there are thousands of men with guns out there who believe every word that's being said.

Take whatever question they give you, give 'em a quick line to make it seem like you answered it…and then talk about what you want to talk about.

Don't bargain with them, Jamie,' said the old man again. 'Don't help them, don't believe them, don't let them live one moment beyond what it takes to destroy them safely. No matter what they tell you, about why it is so necessary that you help them do whatever it is they're asking you to help them do. They are lying.

when the public nerve is aroused, the most impressive capacity of man is his skill for lying.

Engineered genes don't play by the rules that have organized life for three billion years (or, if you prefer, 4,004). And in this case, winning means loser takes all.

They are all for the great captain, while he indentures them and eats their souls and property. Somehow he gets them to side against their own.

No one. I'm a pawn in this game. You're always first to say how unimportant I am. But at least I will be the pawn who tells the truth.

Romeo Blevins lawyered up and gaslighted the jury like he'd gaslighted Mariah and every other soul ever to know him. Making himself out the good Samaritan, Mariah the crazy jealous bitch.

If anybody else had ever wanted me happy, they could have fooled me. Possibly Mom, as long as it didn't cross tracks with her own maneuvers. That's all people really want, for you to fit into their maneuvers.

When you manage people, you must first convince them they need managing. So you create the problems and then let the people cry for solutions.

In this town, white politicians and black ministers seemed to go together like tears and tissues. At election time, the pols got religion and came looking for the blessings of black ministers as a way to get black votes without providing the kinds of services to black communities that they at least promised to East Boston and Charlestown and the other mostly white Boston neighborhoods.

Elizabeth was counting on Marco to keep cousin Mary occupied until after the board meeting was over. A piece of cheese might catch a mouse, but an afternoon alone with a muscular masseur would ensnare her cousin far more effectively. And afterwards, while Mary lay sated and sleeping upon a massage table, wiser heads could determine the company's future. There were times, Elizabeth thought, when success in business demanded utter ruthlessness.

If you wanted to understand the mentality of most Washington insiders, all you had to do was put yourself in the mind of an insecure teenager, at which point it all began to make sense.

It was fascinating, how people could be so reluctant to recognize blackmail, how eager they could be to convince themselves it was something else, even something fundamentally mutually cooperative. And sometimes it seemed the more powerful the individual, the greater the capacity for self-deception. He

Now it was "our purpose," something she taught her women's self-defense students to recognize as "forced teaming," when a person suggests he has something in common with his intended victim to get her to drop her guard.

And maybe on some level his approach was manipulative, but what mattered most was the way it made her feel. Like he understood her, without ever having to be heavy-handed about it.

Naomi, you think this is all an accident? It's a science. There are people out there who are experts at getting others to do tomorrow what was unthinkable today.

You have to remember, the history the powers-that-be feed you always excludes what they managed to bury. Or whom.

there are no bad guys, any more than there are good guys. There are only smart people, and stupid ones; puppets, and puppet masters

You're just like the politicians, Alex. You want something done but you won't let people do it right. You think you can pick up a turd from the clean end? It doesn't work that way.

You start slow. You find the subject's limits and get him to spend some time there. He gets used to it. Before long, the limits have moved. You never take him more than a centimeter beyond. You make it feel it's his choice.

It's a science. There are people out there who are experts at getting others to do tomorrow what was unthinkable today.

Fraud, my children! Fraud and forgery. Dry rot covered with paint and gilded with lies