Quotes About Influence

Abd al-Aziz bin Baz, the late grand mufti of Saudi Arabia

I am not even an atheist so much as I am an antitheist; I not only maintain that all religions are versions of the same untruth, but I hold that the influence of churches, and the effect of religious belief, is positively harmful.

The people who must never have power are the humorless.

But Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require.

Why not, in exchange for the pains and humiliations of being superseded, at least exert the influence that the effete may always bring to bear upon the brash?

Thomas Paine was not wrong in saying that he could not believe in any religion that shocked the mind of a child.)

It is beyond doubt that wherever the United States needed to lose any kind of virginity in global affairs, the British were on hand with unguents and aphrodisiacs of all kinds.

When intellectuals and artists withdraw from the fray, politicians feel safer.

A minority is only thought of as a minority when it constitutes some kind of a threat to the majority, real or imaginary.

British Imperialism has been engaged, during the last two hundred years, in conferring upon its victims the dubious benefits of the Bible, the Bottle and the Bomb. And of these three, I might perhaps venture to add, the Bomb has been infinitely the least noxious.

A minority is only thought of a minority when it constitutes some kind of threat to the majority, real or imaginary.

All things that move between the quiet poles Shall be at my command. Emperors and kings Are but obey'd in their several provinces, Nor can they raise the wind, or rend the clouds; But his dominion that exceeds in this Stretcheth as far as doth the mind of man! A sound magician is a mighty god.

YOUNGER MORTIMER: Fear'd am I more than lov'd; - let me be fear'd, And, when I frown, make all the court look pale.

Adeline had come to Christianity the same way she had come to sex and smoking:through peer pressure.Thinking about her six kids and her smoker's hack, she wondered if perhaps peer pressure didn't always lead to the best habits.

She set the course of his life with just a smile.

It's like he has this power over me—like I have an eating disorder and he's a package of Oreo Double Stuff cookies.

My children are monsters, Kiro thought. And I am responsible. Perhaps if I had read them the haikus of Basho when they were little instead of that American manifesto of high-pressure sales, Green Eggs and Ham...

Joshua grinned: "I think we'll both do better than my cousin John and his 'hold them underwater until they agree with you' sermon.

Hey, you ever feel like you might just be the construct of an unyielding, all-seeing bureaucracy beyond our perception that is molding humanity to its own will and pleasure?

The key to retaining their respect was to find out what they wanted to do, then tell them to do it.

The only way to control the faithful is to not become one of them

Isolate 'em. That's why all your loony-toon cult guys have to get their people out in the boonies somewhere where no one can talk any sense into 'em. Just

no somos más que políticos: vociferantes putas de la retórica.

The Beta Male is seldom the strongest or the fastest, but because he can anticipate danger, he far outnumbers his Alpha Male competition. The world is led by Alpha Males, but the machinery of the world turns on the bearings of the Beta Male.