Quotes About Influence

Friend of the Gatsbys . . .

Think of submitting our measure to the advice of politicians! I would as soon submit the subject of the equality of a goose to a fox.

The bottom line is that 'Russia can either be an empire or a democracy, but it cannot be both.'19 If Ukraine does not stay independent, in other words, Russia will not remain a democracy, so Ukrainian independence is as much for Russia's good as Ukraine's. Russians, of course, have some difficulty taking this concept on board.

The (Polish-bom) American Sovietologist Zbigniew Brzezinski writes that 'without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.

Ukraine's relationship with Poland is difficult and contradictory. For 500 years they shared a common history, first under the Polish kings, then under the Russian tsars. But like rival siblings they define themselves more by their differences than their similarities – Poland glamorous and self-dramatising;

intermarrying with the local clans and Slavicising their names. Helgi became Oleh; Ingwarr, Ihor; Waldemar, Volodymyr.

All those boys and girls out there, once they'd passed through the Hitler Youth and the Labor Service and the army, they were like the children in the saga, children who'd been raised by wild animals to rip apart and devour their own mothers.

It is good people who make good places.

There are . . . well, always have been, people in positions of power and influence who will bend and use the law to suit themselves, for their own gain. Those are the kind of wrongs we try to expose. And without being too dramatic, that's what drives us as journalists . .

my mum, who was my heart, who didn't live to see this, but who will be forever on my shoulder, inspiring me.

You change a man's mind by showing him a good time.

When you're a kid, you have these big ideas and these big dreams to make a change, or maybe you feel like you can't make a difference.

This form of soft dictatorship does not require mass violence to stay in power. Instead, it relies upon a cadre of elites to run the bureaucracy, the state media, the courts, and, in some places, state companies. These modern-day clercs understand their role, which is to defend the leaders, however dishonest their statements, however great their corruption, and however disastrous their impact on ordinary people and institutions. In exchange, they know that they will be rewarded and advanced.

This new information world also provides a new set of tools and tactics that another generation of clercs can use to reach people who want simple language, powerful symbols, clear identities. There is no need, nowadays, to form a street movement in order to appeal to those of an authoritarian predisposition. You can construct one in an office

Whatever equilibrium your nation reaches, there is always someone, at home or abroad, who has reasons to upset it.

People click on the news they want to hear; Facebook, YouTube, and Google then show them more of whatever it is that they already favor, whether it is a certain brand of soap or a particular form of politics.

the German sociologist Wolfgang Sofsky wrote that "absolute power is a structure, not a possession.

To this day, when men meet me, there's always that movie in the back of their mind.

It was hard to be around Jean because he looked at her and saw what Meg's future would have been if she hadn't been brave enough to run away—and if Jean hadn't been brave enough to stay.

But words can beat down a person as surely as fists

Life journeys. On the way, you are influenced by others, helped by others, harmed by others. Some things happen because you have earned them. And some things happen because cruelty flickers through the dark currents and rises up without warning; causing harm, causing pain, causing tragedies that can devastate one person or and entire village.

For you, being around that man is like drinking a glass of poison every day," Nadine said. "Maybe it just makes you sick, makes you weak, makes you forget who you really are and what you really want. But if you keep drinking, sooner or later, the poison will kill you.

Life journeys. On the way, you are influenced by others, helped by others, harmed by others. Some things happen because you have earned them. And some things happen because cruelty flickers through the dark currents and rises up without warning; causing harm, causing pain, causing tragedies that can devastate one person or an entire village.

It was equally clear, at least to her, that no one on the right side of sanity messed with Douglas Burke.