Quotes About Influence

History is the consequence not only of people's actions, but also of their forgetfulness.

Winner of the "Booker of Bookers," Midnight's Children is the novel that can be said to have done for Indian literature what One Hundred Years of Solitude did for the literature of the Americas, exciting a boom whose echoes have yet to fade.

I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I've gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each I,...contains a similar multitude. To understand me, you'll have to swallow a world.

By lying, we deny others a view of the world as it is. Our dishonesty not only influences the choices they make, it often determines the choices they can make—and in ways we cannot always predict. Every lie is a direct assault upon the autonomy of those we lie to.

The problem I want to talk to you about tonight is the problem of belief. What does it mean to believe? We use this word all the time, and I think behind it lurk some really extraordinary taboos and confusions. What I want to argue tonight is that how we talk about belief- how we fail to criticize or criticize the beliefs of others, has more importance to us personally, more consequence to us personally and to civilization than perhaps anything else that is in our power to influence.

It is time we recognized that belief is not a private matter; it has never been merely private. In fact, beliefs are scarcely more private than actions are, for every belief is a fount of action in potentia.

You are not in control of your mind—because you, as a conscious agent, are only part of your mind, living at the mercy of other parts.

If your golf instructor were to insist that you shave your head, sleep no more than four hours each night, renounce sex, and subsist on a diet of raw vegetables, you would find a new golf instructor. However, when gurus make demands of this kind, many of their students simply do as directed.

Becoming a part of a movement doesn't help anybody think clearly.

A puppet is free so long as he loves his strings

People who hold strong convictions without evidence, belong at the margins of our society, not in our halls of power.

Our conventional sense of self is an illusion; positive emotions, such as compassion and patience, are teachable skills; and the way we think directly influences our experience of the world.

It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because it was written in the stars but because it was written in our books; it is what we do with words like 'God' and 'paradise' and ''sin' in the present that will determine our future.

Bush White House

Every person is a puppet who didn't pick his own strings and those strings reach back to the big bang.

No human being us responsible for his genes or his upbringing, yet we have every reason to believe that these factors determine his character.

No human being is responsible for his genes or his upbringing, yet we have every reason to believe that these factors determine his character.

I can inspire people on how to use money, how to get economically powerful.

Sport is cultural. What the star athlete does helps to define the culture. What the star athlete does on a Canadian team, especially if he or she is Canadian, helps define Canadian-ness.

Yes, I think I have the best swing on the Tour. Why have scores comedown in the last ten years? Partly because they are imitating me.

If we, as coaches, aren't teachers, we are nothing

When everyone believes they are the life coaches, who are the players?

I think soccer is more respected now than it ever has been. You can see that in the numbers of young kids who are playing and the numbers of people who are coming to watch.

I love sports, and when I was playing soccer, I was always trying to be the leader on the team and the one who takes control.