Quotes About Influence

You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.

You know the greatest lesson of history? It's that history is whatever the victors say it is. That's the lesson. Whoever wins, that's who decides the history.

Sometimes what others say about us matters the most

While external factors may influence our actions, they cannot control them, for that would be to negate free will. To say "what will be, will be" is not to imply that the future is predetermined.

yet eager to command others;

the princeps would often arrive late and leave early, letting his guests start and finish without him.

of both Hirtius and Pansa—had placed Octavian in an extraordinarily powerful position.

Tiberius was persuaded to remain silent. The matter was closed.

Caesar was handing Octavius a priceless weapon: his name and his clientela

As Cicero drily put it: "We must apply to our fellow-countrymen for virtue, but for our culture to the Greeks.

he would enjoy the power of a tribune without actually having to hold the post.

Cleopatra took her time, but when she appeared she brought everything that was needed.

Mark Antony took the same line.

his signet ring bearing the head of Alexander the Great.

Let your motto be, I lead. Strive to be best.

Senators will also have been pleased to witness the declining importance of the people—

AS far as it could, the Senate allowed events to take their course, intervening only when absolutely necessary.

He understood that he needed the confidence of the people and, as the clear-eyed philosopher Aristotle put it, the "confidence of the people [depended] on hostility to the rich.

She would have been no help to an ambitious young man's career

For as far as I can cast my mind back into times gone by, as far as I can recollect the earliest years of my boyhood, the picture of the past that takes shape reveals that it was [Archias] who first inspired my determination to embark on these studies, and who started me on their methodical pursuit.

He was accompanied by Agrippa and another early friend, Quintus Salvidienus Rufus

No, far better for the queen to be persuaded to do away with herself.

Thucydides is the greatest writer of history in history. In fact, he is so good that we are trapped inside his version of events.

even without access to Caesar's estate, Octavian had large sums of money at his disposal.