Quotes About Influence

But what use was the semblance of power without the substance?

There are in the world no such men as self-made men. The term implies an individual independence of the past and present which can never exist. —FREDERICK DOUGLASS, "SELF-MADE MEN

Our goal is to make finance the servant, not the master, of the real economy.

Every man is what environment and heredity make him.

Talking about history is not like living it, I guess. Some people have more choice than others.

One and all, you have proclaimed Pittakos, the lowborn, to be tyrant of your lifeless and doomed land. Moreover, you deafen him with praise.

Sycophancy toward those who hold power is a fact in every regime, and especially in a democracy, where, unlike tyranny, there is an accepted principle of legitimacy that breaks the inner will to resist.

The Ancients subjected themselves to a fierce discipline of detachment from public opinion. Although they inevitably had to try to influence political life in their favor, they never seriously thought of themselves as founders or lawgivers. The mixture of unwise power and powerless wisdom, in the ancients view, would always end up with power strengthened and wisdom compromised. He who flirts with power, Socrates said, will be compelled to lie with it.

Flattery of the people and incapacity to resist public opinion are the democratic vices, particularly among writers, artists, journalists and anyone else who is dependent on an audience.

Mick Jagger played the role in their [students] lives that Napoleon played in the lives of ordinary young Frenchmen throughout the nineteenth century. Everyone else was so boring and unable to charm youthful passions.

Democratic individualism does not officially provide much of a place for leaders in a regime where everyone is supposed to be his own master. Charisma both justifies leaders and excuses followers.

In order to know such an amorphous being as man, Rousseau himself and his particular history are, in his view, more important than is Socrates quest for man in general or man in himself.

According to Machiavelli, love of virtue is only an imagination, a kind of perversion of desire effected by societys (i.e., others) demands on us.

Television enters not only the room, but also the tastes of old and young alike, appealing to the immediately pleasant and subverting whatever does not conform to it.

Plato says a multitude can never philosophize and hence can never recognize the seriousness of philosophy or who really philosophizes. Attempted to influence the multitude results in forced prostitution.

Without much accuracy, with strangely little love at all, your family will decide for you exactly who you are, and they'll keep nudging, coaxing, poking you until you've changed into that very simple shape.

E assim como só conhecemos a doutrina de Jesus pelos escritos de seus discípulos, só conhecemos a de Sócrates pelos escritos de seu discípulo Platão.

Médium é toda pessoa que sente, num grau qualquer, a influência dos Espíritos. Essa faculdade é inerente ao homem e, por conseguinte, não constitui um privilégio exclusivo. Por isso mesmo, raras são as pessoas que não possuem alguns rudimentos dessa faculdade. Pode-se, pois, dizer que todos são mais ou menos médiuns.

Se ha visto, bajo la influencia de ciertos médiums, aparecer manos teniendo todas las propiedades de manos vivientes que tienen calor, que se pueden tocar, que ofrecen la resistencia de un cuerpo sólido que os agarran, y que de repente se desvanecen como una sombra.

What he missed was "the lack of great sounding boards like John, Ringo, George to actually talk to about the music.

The cigarette gets the credit for everything and the blame for nothing.

Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.

Throughout history, great leaders have known the power of humor.

Leadership is about being a servant first.