Quotes About Influence

The first step to being in control was to see yourself as capable of being in control.

The religions in my portfolio weren't useless after all, he thought, the power flowing from him and remaking the world. None of them were. They weren't all true. But they all had truth.

My dear friend, the entire point of life is to find ways to get others to do your work for you. Don't you know anything about basic economics? - Breeze

Men like power, and they love controlling something powerful.

Ear demons are totally real," Cody said. "They're what make microphones like these ones work. They're also what tell you to eat the last slice of pie when you know Tia wanted it.

If men read these words, let them know that power is a heavy burden. Seek not to be bound by its chains.

On an individual basis, in most interactions, this thing we call power—authority—exists only as it is perceived.

You are worse for your association with the world, but it is better for its association with you.

There was safety in being the one everyone else looked to. I felt everything, but I didn't want anyone to know it.

It was his ability to trust," she said. "It was the way that he made good people into better people, the way that he inspired them. His crew worked because he had confidence in them—because he respected them. And, in return, they respected each other.

Lock a man in prison, and you might stop him from committing crimes. Teach a man to respect himself and his community, and you stopped everyone he might have taught, recruited, or bullied.

Harmony protect us from small-minded men with too much power.

Progress is learning to control your world.

How did they decide what was valuable? Did they all just gather together, sit around in their suits and gowns, and say, "Oi. Let's start eatin' fish eggs, and make the stuff real expensive. That'll rust their brains, it will." Then they'd have a nice round of rich folks' laughter and throw some servants off the top of a building to see what kind of splats they'd make when they hit.

Men in power always pretend things like virtue, or divine guidance, some kind of mandate to 'protect' the rest of us. If we believe that the Almighty put them where they are, it's easier for us to swallow what they do to us.

A man can only lead when others accept him as their leader, and he has only as much authority as his subjects give to him.

Magic is like bad grammar; hang around it long enough, and it rubs off on you.

Every single thing in the city that we touch, see, feel, experience comes as the result of some person's influence.

I think you underestimate the stubbornness a crown can press into a man or woman's mind.

There is a saying in the Steel Ministry," Yomen finally said. " 'Sit down to dine with evil, and you will ingest it with your meal.

I found it interesting how humane things became once the people far up the command chain—the ones who didn't have to bleed for the decisions they made—couldn't force everyone into line.

What they do not realise - and what you must realise - is that manipulating others is something that all people do. In fact, manipulation is at the core of our social interaction.

People," Shai said, rising to fetch another seal, "by nature attempt to exercise power over what is around them. We build walls to shelter us from the wind, roofs to stop the rain. We tame the elements, bend nature to our wills. It makes us feel as if we're in control.

Well, perhaps by one definition. But it seems that either one—good or evil—has to be pursued for it to be significant. People today … it seems they are good, or sometimes evil, mostly by inertia, not by choice. They act as their surroundings prepare them to act.