Quotes About Influence

Ralph had never seen his way clearly in that dim underworld of affairs where men of the Moffatt and Driscoll type moved like shadowy destructive monsters beneath the darting small fry of the surface.

The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.

As to the right of men to act anywhere according to their pleasure, without any moral tie, no such right exists. Men are never in a state of total independence of each other. It is not the condition of our nature: nor is it conceivable how any man can pursue a considerable course of action without its having some effect upon others; or, of course, without producing some degree of responsibility for his conduct.

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver, and adulation is not of more service to the people than to kings.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free: if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

Example is the school of mankind, and they will learn at no other.

I should imagine, that the influence of reason in producing our passions is nothing near so extensive as it is commonly believed.

Religion, by 'consecrating' the state, gives the people an added impetus to respect and regard their regime.

But liberty, when men act in bodies, is power.

he was, indeed, arrived at that pitch of greatness, that the means of his ruin could only be found in his own family.

Do not allow yourselves to be cajoled into supposing that political apathy is dangerous. Dictators such as Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin are raised to power, not by apathy, but by mass fanaticism.

He is a great big boy, Wilson said. There is a sweetness about him that is very compelling. You can't resist the man. I can easily understand why his followers are so fond of him.

Persuasion should come before force. In any case it is the availability of raw power, not the use of it, that makes for effective diplomacy.

confidently, "President

This isn't a banana republic. You can't pull strings in America, pay off an official, lean on your cousin. It's not like France or Spain – those banana republics.

Gide was the tutelary god of my adolescence, and I immersed myself in his work. He wasn't a very good role model, since he made it clear that he was a pedophile, not a homosexual, and genuinely immoral.

Yet New York is always the chef, never the diner. Being

Other writers, especially the ones you admire, can steer you to good books.

America was the attic of French culture.

Don't let him lead you astray, my child. He's such a wicked man, woof!

I was three people: the boy who smelled bad when I was with my sister; the boy who was wise and kind beyond his years when I was with my mother; but when I was alone not a boy at all but a principle of power, of absolute power.

Everything hinged on money

History is past politics and politics present history.

The cult of the individual that dominates modern minds, the ideology of the "I," prevents most of us from seeing ourselves as products of the chronicle and choices of our predecessors