Influence Quotes - Page 12

• One has very little influence upon one's children. Their characters are what they are and one can do nothing to change them.

  Andre Maurois

  Children, Character, Littles

  "The Art of Living". Book by Andre Maurois, 1939.

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• I discovered, to my amazement, that all through history there had been resistance ... and bitter, exaggerated, last-stitch resistance ... to every significant technological change that had taken place on earth. Usually the resistance came from those groups who stood to lose influence, status, money...as a result of the change. Although they never advanced this as their reason for resisting it. It was always the good of humanity that rested upon their hearts.

  Isaac Asimov

  Taken, Heart, Technological Change

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• Korell is that frequent phenomenon in history : the republic whose ruler has every attribute of the absolute monarch but the name. It therefore enjoyed the usual despotism unrestrained even by those two moderating influences in the legitimate monarchies: regal "honor" and court etiquette.

  Isaac Asimov

  Names, Two, Honor

  Isaac Asimov (1991). “Great Tales of the Golden Age of Science Fiction”, Bbs Publishing Corporation

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• I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged despair."

  Kenneth Tynan

  Indulge In, Luxury, Despair

  "Conference at Edinburgh (1963)". "Tynan Right and Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events". Book by Kenneth Tynan, p. 146, 1967.

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• Does the critic wish to influence the kind of film that costs more than £250,000? It is as if he were to send a postcard to General Motors explaining that he would like them to make a raft next year, or a helicopter, instead of a car.

  Kenneth Tynan

  Years, Car, Wish

  "Footnote on Cinema". "Tynan Right and Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events". Book by Kenneth Tynan, p. 260, 1967.

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• A teacher who can show good, or indeed astounding results while he is teaching, is still not on that account a good teacher, for it may be that, while his pupils are under his immediate influence, he raises them to a level which is not natural to them, without developing their own capacities for work at this level, so that they immediately decline again once the teacher leaves the schoolroom.

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Teacher, Teaching, Levels

  "Culture and Value" by Ludwig Wittgenstein, translated by Peter Winch, (p. 43e), 1980.

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• It is certainly true that whatever a man may do or say, the most significant thing about him is what he thinks; and significant also is how he came to think it, why he continued to think it, or, if he did not continue, what the influences were which caused him to change his mind.

  Albert J. Nock

  Men, Thinking, Significant Things

  "Memoirs of a Superfluous Man". Book by Albert J. Nock, 1943.

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• Let us build a structure of peace in the world in which the weak are as safe as the strong — in which each respects the right of the other to live by a different system — in which those who would influence others will do so by the strength of their ideas, and not by the force of their arms. Let us accept that high responsibility not as a burden, but gladly — gladly because the chance to build such a peace is the noblest endeavor in which a nation can engage.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Peace, Strong, Responsibility

  Second Inaugural Address, delivered 20 January 1973

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• Curiosity is natural to the soul of man and interesting objects have a powerful influence on our affections. Let these influencing powers actuate, by the permission or disposal of Providence, from selfish or social views, yet in time the mysterious will of Heaven is unfolded, and we behold our conduct, from whatever motives excited, operating to answer the important designs of heaven.

  Daniel Boone

  Powerful, Selfish, Men

  "The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke". Book by John Filson, the opening lines of "The Adventures of Col. Daniel Boon; containing a Narrative of the Wars of Kentucke", 1784.

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• When, about fifteen years ago, I walked into Arshile's studio for the first time, the atmosphere was so beautiful that I got a little dizzy and when I came to, I was bright enough to take the hint immediately. If the bookkeepers think it necessary to make sure of where things and people came from, well then, I came from 36 Union Square. I am glad that it is about impossible to get away from his powerful influence.

  Willem de Kooning

  Beautiful, Powerful, Thinking

  ART news, Volume 47, No. 9, January 1949.

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• Although I have no objection to accepting the existence of relatively constant psychic contents that survive personal ego, it must always be born in mind that we have no way of knowing what these contents are actually like "as such." All we can observe is their effect on other living people, whose spiritual level and whose personal unconscious crucially influence the way these contents actually manifest themselves.

  Wolfgang Pauli

  Spiritual, Psychics, Knowing

  "Atom and Archetype" edited by Carl Alfred Meier, translated by David Roscoe, 1992.

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• The mental never influences the physical. It is always the physical that modifies the mental, and when we think that the mind is diseased, it is always an illusion.

  Claude Bernard

  Thinking, Mind, Illusion

  "Pensées". Book by Claude Bernard, 1937.

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• Capital burns off the nuance in a culture. Foreign investment, global markets, corporate acquisitions, the flow of information through transnational media, the attenuating influence of money that's electronic and sex that's cyberspaced, untouched money and computer-safe sex, the convergence of consumer desire--not that people want the same things, necessarily, but that they want the same range of choices.

  Don DeLillo

  Sex, Media, People

  Don DeLillo (2015). “Underworld: Picador Classic”, p.769, Pan Macmillan

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• 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. Reviewing the false claims of religion, I do not wish, as some sentimental materialists affect to wish, that they were true. I do not envy believers their faith. I am relieved to think that the whole story is a sinister fairy tale; life would be miserable if what the faithful affirmed was actually the case.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Religious, Atheist, Thinking

  Christopher Hitchens (2009). “Letters to a Young Contrarian”, p.55, Basic Books

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• The polls undoubtedly help to decide what people think, but their most important long-term influence may be on how people think. The interrogative process is very distinctly weighted against the asking of an intelligent question or the recording of a thoughtful answer.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Thoughtful, Intelligent, Thinking

  Christopher Hitchens (2014). “For the Sake of Argument: Essays and Minority Reports”, p.58, Atlantic Books Ltd

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• He who thinks he can have flesh and bones without being subject to any external influence, or any accidents of matter, unconsciously wishes to reconcile two opposites, viz., to be at the same time subject and not subject to change. If man were never subject to change there could be no generation; there would be one single being, but no individuals forming a species.

  Maimonides

  Men, Thinking, Opposites

  Moses Maimonides (2012). “The Guide for the Perplexed”, p.269, Courier Corporation

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• Divine Providence is connected with Divine intellectual influence, and the same beings which are benefited by the latter so as to become intellectual, and to comprehend things comprehensible to rational beings, are also under the control of Divine Providence, which examines all their deeds with a view of rewarding or punishing them. ...the method of which our mind is incapable of understanding.

  Maimonides

  Views, Understanding, Intellectual

  "Guide for the Perplexed". Book by Maimonides, Ch.17, 1190.

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• Perhaps this is what really happens in life to most good men. They are not crucified. They simply pass through life and then die, and their passing influences just a few people to make them just a little happy.

  Kenneth Rexroth

  Men, People, Good Man

  Kenneth Rexroth, Bradford Morrow (1989). “More Classics Revisited”, p.102, New Directions Publishing

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• The good and the bad mix themselves so thoroughly in our thoughts, even in our aspirations, that we must look for excellence rather in overcoming evil than in freeing ourselves from its influence.

  Anthony Trollope

  Overcoming Evil, Excellence, Looks

  Anthony Trollope (1869). “He Knew He was Right”, p.80

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• In fact, the influence of Schoenberg may be overwhelming on his followers, but the significance of his art is to be identified with influences of a more subtle kind - not the system, but the aesthetic, of his art. I am quite conscious of the fact that my Chansons madécasses are in no way Schoenbergian, but I do not know whether I ever should have been able to write them had Schoenberg never written.

  Maurice Ravel

  Art, Writing, Should Have

  "Ravel: Man and Musician". Book by Arbie Orenstein, p. 126, 1975.

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• There iz no alternativ. Every possible reezon that could ever be offered for altering the spelling of wurds, stil exists in full force; and if a gradual reform should not be made in our language, it wil proov that we are less under the influence of reezon than our ancestors.

  Noah Webster

  Reform, Language, Made

  Noah Webster (1977). “A collection of essays and fugitiv writings 1790”, Scholars Facsimilies & Reprint

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• Throughout Ronnie's presidency, there was an ongoing public discussion as to how much influence the first lady should have on the president. It's hardly a new problem. As long as mankind has lived in groups, there's always been a question of how to handle the boss's wife.

  Nancy Reagan

  Should Have, Long, Wife

  Nancy Reagan (2011). “My Turn: The Memoirs of Nancy Reagan”, p.75, Random House

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• The task of the political philosopher can only be to influence public opinion, not to organize people for action. He will do so effectively only if he is not concerned with what is now politically possible but consistently defends the "general principles which are always the same." In this sense I doubt whether there can be such a thing as a conservative political philosophy. Conservatism may often be a useful practical maxim, but it does not give us any guiding principles which can influence long-range developments.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  Philosophy, Guiding Principles, Often Is

  "The Constitution of Liberty". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Postscript: Why I Am Not a Conservative, 1960.

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• If we wish to influence our own life in a particular direction, which is constantly threatened by the danger of the emergence of alien life-forms, and protect it from deterioration, then we must either allow Nature to rule or, if we wish to intervene, we must first acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of life.

  Viktor Schauberger

  Wish, Principles, Deterioration

  Viktor Schauberger, Callum Coats (2000). “The Energy Evolution – Harnessing Free Energy from Nature: Volume 4 of Renowned Environmentalist Viktor Schauberger’s Eco-Technology Series”, p.15, Gill & Macmillan Ltd

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• Visitation reflects the era of the absentee father; parent time influences the re-emergence of the involved father. Visitation reflects the destruction of the family; parent time influences the reconstruction of the family. Parent time influences an era that understands that as either parent loses, so lose the children.

  Warren Farrell

  Children, Father, Parent

  "Father and Child Reunion". Book by Warren Farrell, 2001.

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