Quotes About Influence

Giving up was the new normal, and I have to say it was catching.

His father was self-made, but his mother was constructed by others, and such edifices are notoriously fragile.

Knowledge is power only as long as you keep your mouth shut.

Perhaps he's reached that state of intoxication which power is said to inspire, the state in which you believe you are indispensable and can therefore do anything, absolutely anything you feel like, anything at all.

Pink is supposed to weaken your enemies, make them go soft on you, which must be why it's used for baby girls. It's a wonder the military hasn't got on to this.

She who pays the undertaker calls the tune.

But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest.

Fear is a powerful stimulant.

After we're gone the work of our knives will survive this.

I always made dough men, I never made dough women, because after they were baked I would eat them, and that made me feel I had a secret power over men. It was becoming clear to me that, despite the urges Aunt Vidala said I aroused in them, I had no power over them otherwise.

Jimmy found himself wishing to make a dent in Crake, get a reaction; it was one of his weaknesses, to care what other people thought of him.

Not for nothing do we at Ardua Hall say 'Pen Is Envy.'

I didn't know I was about to be left with her idea of me; with her idea of my goodness pinned onto me like a badge and no chance to throw it back at her (as would have been the normal course of affairs with a mother and a daughter—if she'd lived, as I'd grown older).

the best and most cost-effective way to control women for reproductive and other purposes was through women themselves. For this there were many historical precedents; in fact, no empire imposed by force or otherwise has ever been without this feature: control of the indigenous by members of their own group.

I see what he's after. He is a collector. He thinks all he has to do is give me an apple, and then he can collect me.

But maybe he was destructive by nature since he messed up every girl he touched

And what did I amount to, once the official version gained ground? An edifying legend. A stick used to beat other women with.

To institute an effective totalitarian system or indeed any system at all you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privileged few, in return for those you remove.

A]nother thing about myths: they gather in and circumscribe their target audience. They make a collection into a collective.

How potent was that word. With.

Second-hand American was spreading over him in patches, like mange or lichen. He was infested, garbled, and I couldn't help him: it would take such time to heal, unearth him, scrape down to where he was true.

It's foolish to joke with those who have absolute control over you. They don't like it; they think you don't appreciate the full extent of their power.

In this country you can say what you like because no one will listen to you anyway

When the water's moving faster than the boat, you can't control a thing.