Upper Hand Quotes

• The thirst for powerful sensations takes the upper hand both over fear and over compassion for the grief of others.

  Anton Chekhov

  Powerful, Philosophy, Grief

  "A Dreadful Night". Short story by Anton Chekhov, November 3, 1886.

  64 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'd go dance at talent shows, and because I was young I had the upper hand on a lot of other crews. People thought it was cute. I used that to my advantage.

  Jermaine Dupri

  Cute, Hands, People

  17 Copy quote

• It's funny how the hippies and the punks tried to get rid of the conservatives, but they always seem to get the upper hand in the end.

  Bjork

  Hippie, Hands, Punk

  17 Copy quote

• There are flood and drought over the eyes and in the mouth, dead water and dead sand contending for the upper hand. The parched eviscerate soil gapes at the vanity of toil, laughs without mirth. This is the death of the earth.

  T. S. Eliot

  Death, Eye, Hands

  18 Copy quote

• In the absence of evidence to the contrary, always assume you have the upper hand.

  Ronnie Montrose

  Hands, Assuming, Absence

  11 Copy quote

• In fighting a bull you're always aware of a paradox concerning your perceptions of the bull. On the one hand it's your perceptions of the bull that give you the upper hand. You read the bull, you learn to read the bull more and more accurately, and this reading of the bull is how you deploy your intelligence against the bull's intelligence. Your accuracy in reading the bull is a weapon, maybe your most important weapon, against all the bull's weapons. On the other hand, you're human, you have the human tendency to read into the bull things which may not actually be there.

  Bette Ford

  Reading, Fighting, Hands

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are times when I look over the various parts of my character with perplexity. I recognize that I am made up of several persons and that the person that at the moment has the upper hand will inevitably give place to another. But which is the real one? All of them or none?

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Real, Character, Hands

  6 Copy quote

• Most leaders would agree that they’d be better off having an average strategy with superb execution than a superb strategy with poor execution.  Those who execute always have the upper hand.

  Stephen Covey

  Motivational, Average, Hands

  Stephen R. Covey (2004). “The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness”, p.275, Simon and Schuster

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• In control. Out of control. Sometimes they're the same thing. The trick is knowing that, realizing it's okay to feel out of control once in a while, as long as you're sure you can regain the upper hand when you absolutely need to.

  Ellen Hopkins

  Hands, Knowing, Long

  Ellen Hopkins (2008). “Identical”, p.49, Simon and Schuster

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is not much to be got anywhere in the world. It is filled with misery and pain; if a man escapes these, boredeom lies in wait for him at every corner. Nay more; it is evil which generally has the upper hand, and folly that makes the most noise. Fate is cruel and mankind pitiable.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Pain, Lying, Fate

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2012). “Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer”, p.423, Simon and Schuster

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• It's the first company to build the mental position that has the upper hand, not the first company to make the product. IBM didn't invent the computer; Sperry Rand did. But IBM was the first to build the computer position in the prospect's mind.

  Al Ries

  Hands, Mind, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• It is frankly a mistake of amateurs to believe you can gain the upper hand in a diplomatic negotiation.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  Mistake, Believe, Hands

  6 Copy quote

• There'd been studies over the years supporting the proposition that groups composed exclusively of women usually made intelligent decisions, that exclusively male groups did a bit less well, and that mixed groups did most poorly of all, by a substantial margin. It appeared that, when women were present, testosterone got the upper hand and men took greater risks than they might otherwise. Correspondingly, women in the mixed group tended to revert to roles, becoming more passive, and going along with whatever misjudgment the males might perpetrate.

  Jack McDevitt

  Intelligent, Men, Hands

  Jack McDevitt (2003). “Chindi”, p.463, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• We Communists have got to string along with the capitalists for a while. We need their agriculture and their technology. But we are going to continue massive military programs. . . (soon) we will be in a position to return to a much more aggressive foreign policy designed to gain the upper-hand.

  Leonid Brezhnev

  Military, Technology, Hands

  "Kissinger: The Secret Side of the Secretary of State". Book by Gary Allen, 1976.

  76 Copy quote

  Show source

• I remember asking one of the [cyber experts], I said, "Knowing what you know, and you exist behind the curtains so to speak, and you see behind the curtain, do you look at the world differently? Do you feel you have an upper hand?" He just started laughing and said, "Man, people have no idea how exposed they are, how vulnerable, and what's possible."

  Chris Hemsworth

  Men, Hands, Ideas

  "Michael Mann, Chris Hemsworth, Viola Davis, Leehom Wang, and Tang Wei Talk Blackhat, the Genesis of the Film, Creating a New Film Genre, and More". Interview with Sheila Roberts, collider.com. January 13, 2015.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• In this world, man has two significant possessions: intelligence and emotion. These two possessions govern our day-to-day life. But very often we see that emotion (ego) gets the upper hand in our life. We know that even if someone is extremely intelligent, when his emotion comes to the fore it will devour him. He is compelled to do what his emotion asks him to do.

  Sri Chinmoy

  Men, Intelligent, Two

  4 Copy quote

• Nothing, that is say no one, can be such an inexorable tour-conductor as one's own conscience or sense of duty, if one allows either the upper hand: the self-bullying that goes on in the name of sight-seeing is grievous.

  Elizabeth Bowen

  Bullying, Travel, Sight

  4 Copy quote

• The one who decides who goes ahead has the upper hand, regardless of who gets to go. This is why many women do not feel empowered by such privileges as having doors held open for them. The advantage of going first through the door is less salient to them than the disadvantage of being granted the right to walk through a door by someone who is framed, by his magnanimous gesture, as the arbiter of the right-of-way.

  Deborah Tannen

  Power, Doors, Hands

  Deborah Tannen (1986). “That's not what I meant!: how conversational style makes or breaks relationships”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The music is the imperative. It has the upper hand. I think all music, even though it's an abstraction, does motivate a particular meaning. Then it's the job of the musician to honor that meaning and to somehow implement lyrical material that can accommodate that emotional environment.

  Sufjan Stevens

  Jobs, Emotional, Thinking

  Interview with Jason Crock, pitchfork.com. May 15, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Today we're seeing fundamental conflicts within political Islam, with the fundamentalists on the one side and the moderates on the other. Who gains the upper hand means a great deal to the world.

  Zalmay Khalilzad

  Mean, Hands, Political

  Source: www.spiegel.de

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I remember being in the audition with Mark [Duplass] and I remember not being able to dominate him. He's so smart and centered and grounded. I can't do what I'd normally do to someone in this situation. I can't get the upper hand in the scene. I was really impressed and excited about the possibility to work with him.

  Jackie Schaffer

  Smart, Hands, Able

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I can only hope that Trump comes to realize the grave dangers of adopting a policy of confrontation toward Iran. Among these dangers is the likelihood that hardliners would again gain the upper hand in the governing process in Tehran, and the moderates who have sought to end national and regional tensions would be marginalized, or worse.

  Richard A. Falk

  Hands, Iran, Would Be

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Hundreds upon hundreds of news outlets - okay, thousands - are interested in following the happenings at the White House. Yet the number of news sources at the White House - people who know what's happening - is finite. Dozens maybe. With that imbalance hanging over the enterprise, it's hard for a group of reporters competing against one another to secure the upper hand.

  Erik Wemple

  Hands, White, Numbers

  Source: www.washingtonpost.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The press is hostile to Donald Trump, they always will be. And Donald Trump is happy to return the favor. And you know what, he actually has the upper hand in that relationship.

  Ari Fleischer

  Hands, Favors, Return

  Source: www.foxnews.com

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Looking back on the long-stretched-out body of one's work, it is interesting to mark the endless duel fought within a man between the emotional and critical sides of his nature, first one, then the other, getting the upper hand, and too seldom fusing till the result has the mellowness of full achievement. One can even tell the nature of one's readers, by their preference for the work which reveals more of this side than of that.

  John Galsworthy

  Men, Emotional, Hands

  Preface to "Villa Rubein and Other Stories". Book by John Galsworthy, 1923.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source