Quotes About Influence

Political views are influenced not only by forces believed to be irrelevant but by forces that have not entered into conscious awareness.

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, experts advised men to have their kitchens painted apple-green. The experts believed that apple-green quieted nervous people, and especially wives beginning to think of suffrage, of careers beyond the home. Today the explorer of color schemes finds in old houses and apartments the apple-green paint still gracing the inside of the cabinet under the kitchen sink, and the hallways of old police stations and insane asylums.

Fashion is merely the lowest form of ideology. To wear or not to wear blue jeans, to holiday or not to holiday in a particular place can contribute to social acceptance or bring upon us the full opprobrium of the group. Then, a few months or years later, we look back and our obsession, our fears of ridicule, seem a bit silly. By then, we are undoubtedly caught up in new fashions. (I - The Great Leap Backwards)

If individuals do not occupy their legitimate position, then it will be occupied by a god or a king or a coalition of interest groups. If citizens do not exercise the powers confered by their legitimacy, others will do so. (I - The Great Leap Backwards)

Politics is the force that channels social, cultural, and economic powers and makes them imminent in our lives. Abstaining from politics is like turning your back on a beast when it is angry and intent on ripping your guts out.

Good words cool more than cold water.

It was never about the money; at times no money was involved, just sex." "Then what?" "It was always about—" I had never asked that question of myself. "It was always about—" No word came, no answer. "Power.

It doesn't matter. As long as the government pretends it's a secret, the pretense, no matter how thin, gives it certain advantages. Or it thinks it does. Politics is weird that way.

I've heard over and over that people don't vote on the basis of foreign policy.

There are two novels that can transform a bookish 14-year-kid's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish daydream that can lead to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood in which large chunks of the day are spent inventing ways to make real life more like a fantasy novel. The other is a book about orcs.

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year-old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.

The imagination is never governed, it is always the ruling and divine power.

Obey something, and you will have a chance to learn what is best to obey. But if you begin by obeying nothing, you will end by obeying the devil and all his invited friends.

Spiritual power begins by directing animal power to other than egoistic ends.

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

Of all the pulpits from which human voice is ever sent forth, there is none from which it reaches so far as from the grave.

There's a lot of people around here, me included, who think she talked him into an early grave, and that he wasn't the least bit sorry to go.

Elites quite naturally define as the most important and admired qualities for a citizen those on which they themselves have concentrated.

There was a widespread indignation in the American media. They were saying, 'How can you make a movie during an election that's about politics? What are you doing? Are you trying to influence people's lives?' To which my response was, 'Well, I hope so.'

Guns don't kill people. The aliens behind the triggers do.

Syllables govern the world.

They that govern most make the least noise.

Preachers say: do as I say, not what I do

Emotions make excellent servants, but tyrannical masters.