Quotes About Influence

Personal faith can be a powerful force for public good.

Nothing that ever happens is so unimportant that it doesn't change things.

Rousseau's constant influence on later generations is indubitable (though not always positive). He can be seen as father of the Romantic movement (and even a great-grandfather of the Green movement). The Romantics were inspired by his confirmation of the worth of each and every one of us, however ordinary, by his emphasis on equality, on knowledge of the inner self, and on a spiritual connection with nature, as well as by his imagination and the depth of his feelings.

The way you talk about yourself and your lifeyour storyhas a great deal to do with what shows up in your day-to-day experience. Your thoughts create filters through which you view your life. If you think of yourself as a Victim, you filter all that happens to you through the lens of DDT, and you find plenty of evidence to support that viewpoint. Thats why the orientation you adopt is so important: it exerts a powerful influence on your life direction.

No matter what bosses say, it's all about them. You are just an instrument to them. They'll treat you well as long as you're useful.

The real rivals among your peers will be room-changers. Certain people, when they walk into a room, alter the atmosphere. Everybody else adjusts their posture, their willingness to listen, their ideas. This is not a full definition of leadership, only its most obvious symptom.

How many things we acquire only because others bought them and because they are in a good many homes. Many of our problems are explained by the fact that we copy the example of others: rather than following reason, we are led astray by convention. If only a few people did something, we wouldn't imitate them. But when the majority starts to act a certain way, we follow along, too, as if something should be more honorable just because it's more frequent.11

While democracy has advanced, the part we ordinary citizens have played in the making and sustaining of the places and communities we live in has diminished. Never has so much been decided for so many by so few.

Vivimos sometidos a la tiranía de los deseos ajenos

Could it be that they were sick enough at this point of their own lives to get worked up about those of others? That's always the case. We live under the dictates of others' desires. Natalie and François didn't want to become a TV series for their crowd. For the moment, they loved the idea of being two people alone in the world, in the most perfect cliché of romantic schmaltzy serenity.

Tal es el privilegio de los artistas, dejar obras que le pongan obstáculos a la muerte.

Cuánto le habría gustado a Gourvec que la fundó. Le agradaba que se interesasen por su biblioteca. Era la obra de su vida, como quien dice. Convirtió los fracasos de los otros en su propio triunfo.

Those Greeks and Romans," he protested, "they are so overrated. They only said everything first. I've said just as good things myself. But they got in before me."3

Those Greeks and Romans," he protested, "they are so overrated. They only said everything first. I've said just as good things myself. But they got in before me.

Television enables you to be entertained in your home by people you wouldn't have in your home.

Fearing a court martial for disobedience, some of the soldiers at My Lai participated in the massacre. Normative influence leads to compliance, especially for people who have recently seen others ridiculed or who are seeking to climb a status ladder (Hollander, 1958; Janes & Olson, 2000).

I am truly my mother's son.

superb group of mind-mindful novelists at work today: Philip Roth and Martin Amis, Cynthia Ozick, Jenny Erpenbeck, John Banville, V. S. Naipaul, and J. M. Coetzee—to start.

Trust remains the coin of the realm in politics. A President who is trusted, by the people, by the congress, by the press, by foreign countries, is a President who can get a lot of good things done.

a stoic always kept two files in his mind: one for those things that are up to him and within his power, and one for those that are not up to him and thus beyond his power. If you pay lots of attention to events beyond your power, you will ultimately have a life of fear and guilt; you must let those go and pay attention only to those things within your power.

Understanding the laws of nature does not mean that we are immune to their operations.

Strange, that Earthpeople always follow one who is not wise, but merely compelling.

Terry Tempest Williams's koan came to me in an e-mail, which reads: "I loved both these men. I still feel their hands on my shoulder, wondering what they would be saying, writing, now. In so many ways, Ed was the conservative, Wally, forever the radical.

Our where determines our who," Reg Saner once wrote.