Quotes About Manipulation

Tommy thought it possible the guardians had, throughout all our years at Hailsham, timed very carefully and deliberately everything they told us, so that we were always just too young to understand properly the latest piece of information. But of course we'd take it in at some level, so that before long all this stuff was there in our heads without us ever having examined it properly.

But on further observation, I saw that even if the danger topics were avoided – topics like Josie's education assignments, or her social interaction scores – the uncomfortable feeling could still be there because it really had to do with something beneath these topics; that the danger topics were themselves ways the Mother had devised to make certain emotions appear inside Josie's mind.

I believe I have a good idea of what you mean by "professionalism." It appears to mean getting one's way by cheating and manipulating. It appears to mean serving the dictates of greed and advantage rather than those of goodness and the desire to see justice prevail in the world. If that is the "professionalism" you refer to, sir, I don't much care for it and have no wish to acquire it.

Crystal Eaters by Shane Jones Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa 1984 by George Orwell A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki The Overstory by Richard Powers The Farm by Joanne Ramos The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

Derek picked the spot? Had he been hoping I'd be blinded by the morning sun and stumble off the edge?

Rafe didn't just flirt-he charmed girls right up to the point where they fell for him, then he changed his mind.I called him a player with attention deficit disorder.

While his three eldest sons spent their adult lives toiling to improve the family fortunes, who had Benicio named as his heir? The illegitimate youngest son who had devoted his adult life to destroying the family business, or at least buggering it up real good. Does this make sense to anyone besides Benicio? Of course not. Either the man is a mastermind of family manipulation or just plain fucked in the head. I don't use that word much, but in some cases, nothing else fits. -Paige

Walshes had been taking advantage of gullibility and stupidity ever since they conned their fellow cavemen out of their spears. Highwaymen, pirates, swindlers, and card sharks . . . their family history was both colorful and dark.

Blast him, Ronan hissed as they surveyed the empty space behind the roadside shop. He may tell us not to treat him as a prince, but he cannot stop acting like one. He does as he pleases. Only when it's in my best interests, Tyrus said as he rounded the shop. Ronan glowered. Which is anytime you don't like what you're told to do. Tyrus grinned. True.

Chloe) She considers me a friend." (Derek) "Does she? Huh. Never thought friendship started with one girl locking the other— bound and gagged— in a crawl space."

I hate you." "So you've said. It's situational. I don't take it personally." "You should. I realize interpersonal relationships aren't your forte, but a word of advice? You don't fix problems by forcing people to do what you want." "Then I've been doing it wrong for a very long time. At immense profit and professional success." He looked at me over his shades. "Perhaps you're doing it wrong.

Sorry," I said, hurrying over to him. "Are you--?" As I bent, he tried to snag my leg and yank me down, but I danced back out of reach. "Did you really think I'd fall for that?" I said. "Hoping.

the same people who'd ask an abused woman why she doesn't leave the city where her ex lives, leave the firm where he works, leave her friends and her family and her job and let him have the satisfaction of driving her out.

Nicole crumpled—just let her legs give way and fell to the floor, hunched and sobbing. Hayley looked at me. Even Rafe did. Uncertain looks from both of them. I had to admit, Nicole was a good actor. If I hadn't seen her switch from sweet Nicole to raving lunatic Nicole in a heartbeat at the campsite, I might have believed her myself.

If she was still wearing the muzzle and rope, then they--" "--wanted it to look like she really escaped," Sam said. "There's blood on the rope," I said. "That means she pulled free from whoever had her." "Or they're very detail-oriented.

So how'd you get Dad to agree? Did you play the cultural card?" "Of course not. That would be wrong." I grinned. "You did, didn't you?

The Wizard of Oz was a humbug. He's not great and powerful. He just pretends to be great and powerful. The Wicked Witch of the West is greater and powerfuller. She's got flying monkeys. She's like a mad scientist. She even has a secret weakness. Water is like Kryptonite to her.

Why is it that those who want to destroy everything good about their country are the quickest to waive the national flag?

His talent was to express his readers' most stupid and ignorant prejudices as if they made sense, so that the shameful seemed respectable. That was why they bought the paper.

Americans talked about voters the same way Russians talked about Stalin. They had to be obeyed.

Carla had never before realized how much she had been protected by politicians, newspapermen, and lawyers. Without them, she saw now, the government could do anything it liked, even kill people.

We who are born poor have to use cunning to get what we want. Scruples are for the privileged.

People think they're being saved from a Bolshevik revolution," Frunze said. "The Nazi press has them convinced that the Communists were about to launch a campaign of murder, arson, and poison in every town and village.

It was stupid, but people needed someone to hate, and the newspapers were always ready to supply that need. Maud knew the proprietor of the Mail, Lord Northcliffe. Like all great press men, he really believed the drivel he published. His talent was to express his readers' most stupid and ignorant prejudices as if they made sense, so that the shameful seemed respectable. That was why they bought the paper.