Quotes About Influence

Big Bill's interest in medicine, conventional and otherwise, began to surface in his son and became more pronounced with time.

He was now a master puppeteer, adroitly manipulating his marionettes, with the strings artfully concealed.

As Standard Oil's leading figure, he was the only person who didn't have any direct operational responsibility.

Rockefeller reviewed every bill that arrived at home and often patrolled the hallways, turning off gaslights.

Rockefeller hated being pressured, and Gates always believed that had Harper asked for less, Rockefeller would have willingly given much more.

coaxed America into war for profit.

In creating this self-protective structure, Rockefeller could run Standard Oil while simultaneously sidestepping responsibility, erasing incriminating evidence, and avoiding contact with his victims.

Standard might soon be in a position to eliminate their oil traffic at whim.

They leave no doubt that he was the brains of the operation, directing activities he professed to deplore and setting the tone for his subordinates.

He occupies a position in our business circles second to but few.

he was an unusually sober and purposeful young man. In countless letters in later years, he advised young relatives that adolescence was a risky time when evil influences lurked nearby, ready to pounce: "You are now extending into that stage of life when good or bad habits are formed. When the mind will be turned to things useful and praiseworthy or to dissipation and vice.

Mr. Adams is vain, suspicious, and stubborn, of an excessive self-regard, taking counsel with nobody."9 Jefferson predicted to Létombe that Adams would last only one term and urged the French to invade England.

Washington possessed the outstanding judgment, sterling character, and clear sense of purpose needed to guide his sometimes wayward protégé; he saw that the volatile Hamilton needed a steadying hand.

At this point, Gates decided to wipe out Biggar's influence forever.

so the bank had a heavy stake in the status quo.

While Rockefeller made it seem as if such shenanigans occurred far from his sphere, he was fully briefed by Thompson, who liked to boast of his maneuvers.

When Grant read this, he was outraged at the shocking suggestion that he had subverted justice. He handed the letter to Bristow with a passionate admonition scrawled across it: "Let no guilty man escape if it can be avoided—Be specially vigilant—or instruct those engaged in the prosecutions of fraud to be—against all who insinuate that they have high influence . . . to protect them.

Hamilton's achievements were never matched because he was present at the government's inception, when he could draw freely on a blank slate. If Washington was the father of the country and Madison the father of the Constitution, then Alexander Hamilton was surely the father of the American government.

Gates had to take account of the many things that Rockefeller had ruled off-limits, such as funding social-welfare agencies.

it used its prestige to stretch the limits of acceptable behavior

His constant aim was to be conciliatory whenever possible and extend his range of influence.

he "taught men how to use money and how not to be its slave.

Having outsmarted the largest railroad, Rockefeller had acquired a stranglehold on the three major roads, and his taming of the imperious Tom Scott guaranteed that no railroad president would ever dare to tangle with him again.

While drinking almost never interfered with his official duties, it haunted his career and trailed him everywhere, an infuriating, ever-present ghost he could not shake. It influenced how people perceived him and deserves close attention. As with so many problems in his life, Grant managed to attain mastery over alcohol in the long haul, a feat as impressive as any of his wartime victories.