Quotes about Influence

Eddie, what do we care about people like him? We're driving an express, and they're riding on the roof, making a lot of noise about being leaders. Why should we care? We have enough power to carry them along — haven't we?

Most people feel that they rise in their own eyes, if others want them. I feel that others live up to me, if they want me. And that is the way you feel, too, Hank, about yourself—whether you admit it or not.

When facing society, the man most concerned, the man who is to do the most and contribute the most, has the least say.

he knew that the words they were eager to absorb and believe were the chains slipping in to hold them

He was seeing a long line of men stretched through the centuries from Plato onward, whose heir and final product was an incompetent little professor with the appearance of a gigolo and the soul of a thug.

Someone once said that every man is trying to live up to his father's expectations or make up for their father's mistakes....

You might be locked in a world not of your own making, her eyes said, but you still have a claim on how it is shaped. You still have responsibilities.

In my daughters I see her every day, her joy, her capacity for wonder. I won't try to describe how deeply I mourn her passing still. I know that she was the kindest, most generous spirit I have ever known, and that what is best in me I owe to her.

Money is not the only answer, but it makes a difference.

Leadership isn't just legislation, that it's a matter of persuading people and giving them confidence, and bringing them together and setting a tone.

You're too important for me to take no as an answer

Once you became president, people's perceptions of you—even the perceptions of those who knew you best—were inevitably shaped by the media.