Quotes About Influence

Wealth, religion, military victory have more rhetorical than efficacious worth.

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak.

Parents lend children their experience and a vicarious memory children endow their parents with a vicarious immortality.

America is the greatest of opportunities and the worst of influences.

Half our standards come from our first masters, and the other half from our first loves.

The worship of power is an old religion.

Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends : have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.

All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato.

When I was a kid, I took 'The Brady Bunch' and 'The Partridge Family' very seriously. It was a world to me in the same way that the Greek myths would have been had I read them. You know, Marcia is Athena and Mr. Brady is Zeus.

They who are of the opinion that Money will do everything, may very well be suspected to do everything for Money.

Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts.

I CAN STATE THE CORE IDEA in two relatively simple propositions. One is that in situations that have thinking participants, the participants' view of the world is always partial and distorted. That is the principle of fallibility. The other is that these distorted views can influence the situation to which they relate because false views lead to inappropriate actions. That is the principle of reflexivity.

A boom/bust process occurs only when market prices find a way to influence the so-called fundamentals that are supposed to be reflected in market prices.

If the cognitive function operated in isolation, without any interference from the manipulative function, it could produce knowledge. Knowledge is represented by true statements. A statement is true if it corresponds to the facts. But if the manipulative function is at work, the facts no longer serve as an independent criterion of truth.

The trouble was, all people saw on television were a few of my outspoken supporters out front and they came away thinking that was me.

the calling of the teacher. There is no craft more privileged. To awaken in another human being powers, dreams beyond one's own; to induce in others a love for that which one loves; to make of one's inward present their future; that is a threefold adventure like no other.

It is not the literal past that rules us: it is images of the past.

cultural icons stand the test of time because they speak to our deeper convictions and ignite our dreams.

If a mistake occurs with regularity, it might well become the norm. If enough people believe and propagate the error, it could become gospel.

Cultural icons help people define who they are today because they shaped who they were as children.

If leadership requires a fired-up sense of purpose and imagination, it also demands a profound connection to the society to be led.

This is an impressive crowd—the haves and the have-mores. Some people call you the elite; I call you my base.

I'm the decider, and I decide what is best.

I'll be long gone before some smart person ever figures out what happened inside this Oval Office." (Washington DC, 12 May, 2008)