Quotes About Influence

It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.

Nowadays, everybody fancies himself an expert in government and wants to have a say.

We can achieve a sort of control under which the controlled, though they are following a code much more scrupulously than was ever the case under the old system, nevertheless feel free. They are doing what they want to do, not what they are forced to do. That's the source of the tremendous power of positive reinforcement-- there's no restraint and no revolt. By careful cultural design, we control not the final behavior, but the inclination to behave-- the motives, desires, the wishes.

do you really think that geniuses come from genes? Well, maybe they do. But how close have we ever got to making the most of our genes? That's the real question. You can't possibly give me an answer, Burris, and you know it. There has been absolutely no way of answering it until now, because it has never been possible to manipulate the environment in the required way.

It is a surprising fact that those who object most violently to the manipulation of behaviour nevertheless make the most vigorous effort to manipulate minds.

Democracy is the spawn of despotism. And like father, like son. Democracy is power and rule. It's not the will of the people, remember; it's the will of the majority.

Men build society and society builds men.

In the world at large we seldom vote for a principle or a given state of affairs. We vote for a man who pretends to believe in that principle or promises to achieve that state. We don't want a man, we want a condition of peace and plenty-- or, it may be, war and want-- but we must vote for a man.

In one of the more penetrating criticisms written on this subject, George Orwell expressed a profound truth in saying that "the energy that actually shapes the world springs from emotions.

wars would continue until the makers of gunpowder became professors of Greek, and he here had Gilbert Murray in mind, or the professors of Greek became the makers of gunpowder. And this, in turn, was derived from Plato's conclusion that the affairs of mankind would never go right until either the rulers became philosophers or the philosophers became the rulers.

Lord Acton's famous dictum "All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

is by no means improbable that some future text-book, for the use of generations yet unborn, will contain a question something like this: What historical American of the nineteenth century has exerted the most powerful influence upon the destinies of his countrymen? And it is by no means impossible that the answer to that interrogatory may be thus written: Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet.

If there's one thing I've learned it's what a woman can do to a man's common sense.

If there's one thing I've learned it's what a woman can do to a man's common sense. Admittedly, I never thought it would happen to you.

You can disrupt a behavior you don't want by removing the prompt. This isn't always easy, but removing the prompt is your best first move to stop a behavior from happening.

Teach others or be a role model to galvanize your new identity. A social role is powerful.

People respond reliably to prompts when they are motivated and able, which is exactly what makes well-timed prompts so powerful.

Location is the most important factor when you pair Anchors and new habits.

Simplicity changes behavior.

strengthen others in all my interactions.

The educated classes, however, being more highly propagandized (as the educated always are),

Even that which is untrue, if accepted as true by the world, especially by the elders, becomes the truth. It is publicity-of a fault or virtue that bears fruit as ill repute or fame. The actual truth may earn its reward in the hereafter, but that is of no use here.

Try to Leave an stamp of your thoughts on the readers, not the burden of your words.

The worst thing was that her school-friends began to copy her. They thought it was dead cool to be a little monster like Lucretia Crum!