Quotes About Influence

I am not by any means a philosopher, although I have worked with some talented people in the discipline. But certain philosophical concepts deeply inform the way I think about the world. The idea of 'opposing truths at extremes' is a powerful concept that I came to appreciate in my twenties.

For most of the twentieth century, a Minnesotan abroad could fix his home state in the cosmos by invoking for his hosts the name Charles Lindbergh or Bob Dylan, native sons who were claimed by the world and never really returned to the Gopher State.

In the twentieth century one of the most personal relationships to have developed is that of the person and the state. It's become a fact of life that governments have become very intimate with people, most always to their detriment.

Ronald Reagan was the greatest president of the twentieth century.

I don't know how it could be more stark or clear: this entire society is being dominated by corporate power in a way that may exceed what happened in the late nineteenth century, early twentieth century.

The arrival of a good clown exercises a more beneficial influence upon the health of a town than of twenty asses laden with drugs.

My own ideas on the mechanism of catalytic phenomena were very different from those at one time commonly held, ideas which I no doubt owed to the influence of the illustrious teacher who had guided my first steps in chemistry nearly twenty years before - I refer, of course, to Berthelot.

For one thing, I teach my students what my teacher for twenty years, Paul Gavert, told me, 'The voice follows... the voice follows everything about you... who you are.'

I remember having my father stand over me when I had driven over my own foot; one leg was out of the car and one leg was in the car. He looked at me and told me that I was a drunk and that he was ashamed to call me his son. That night, I stopped drinking and I never drank again; I was twenty four.

I spent twenty years in the Army; of course it's going to color the things I talk about. If anyone spends twenty years doing anything, that's going to play a part in who you are as a human being.

I really do care what people think, and I revolved my whole career and all the twenty five years with Dream Theater... I ran that band and made decisions based on caring what the fans thought and wanted.

Kim and I have been friends for a long time. I've seen how things have played out behind the scenes. She's come a long way and she's a strong woman. The fact that she goes to Australia and twenty thousand people show up to a mall to see her is incredible. She's become an around the world phenomenon.

People are still crazy about Python after twenty-five years, which I find hard to believe.

When I'm dead twenty-five years, people are going to begin to recognize me.

I've said that playing the blues is like having to be black twice. Stevie Ray Vaughan missed on both counts, but I never noticed.

The most beautiful girl in the room not only gets the guy, she lands the job, gets better service at a restaurant, rises through the social ranks before her friends. Doors open for the beautiful woman that may not for a female who is twice as smart but half as beautiful.

Headlines twice the size of the events.

I could be winning the decathlon in high school, which I've won twice, yet, if my dad is in the audience, 'Oh look! It's Anthony Quinn.' And I'm like, 'Hello? Kid just got a gold medal. Hello? I'm over here.'

I'd like to be remembered as a keeper of the flame who kept traditional music alive, because I've been doing that twice as long as I was in the Byrds.

Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.

I think that when you are in the limelight it is part of your obligation to be a good role model. A lot of kids look up to you, and you are given a God-given talent, so it is your responsibility. It isn't hard to deal with. I never have to think twice about doing anything.

I've met Oprah Winfrey twice, but I want to spend some quality time with her. I want to sit her down and talk at her for a minute about what she means to me and why she means that. Then I have some advice for her, too... I have an idea or two.

Well, like most black Americans, I grew up thinking I was supposed to be a Democrat. It wasn't even something you questioned or thought twice about. Black equaled Democrat.

To be scrupulously honest, I only met Noel Coward twice in my life, and then briefly, but I heard so much about him at home when I was growing up that I always felt I knew him well.