Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

I don’t want to make money; I want to make a difference.

And now, of course this is another thing I didn’t count on, that now as the governor of the state of California, I am selling California worldwide. You see that? Selling.

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.

‚Mean‘ is a song I wrote about somebody who wrote things that were so mean so many times that it would ruin my day. Then it would ruin the next day. And it would level me so many times, I just felt like I was being hit in the face every time this person would take to their computer.

When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.

World War II broke out in 1939, and many people credit that war with saving the economy.

I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.

Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable.

The money in politics is a cash cow for the media.

If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different.

If we could do high-speed rail in California just half a notch above what they’ve done on the Shanghai line in China, and if we had a straight path from L.A. to San Francisco, as well as the milk run, at least that would be progress.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

I was born during the war and grew up in a time of rationing. We didn’t have anything. It’s influenced the way I look at the world.

The fact is that when you do something from your heart, you leave a heart print.

Why should I care about posterity? What’s posterity ever done for me?

Success is always dangerous, and we need to be alert and avoid becoming the victims of our own success. Will we influence the world for Christ, or will the world influence us?

We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.

There’s no doubt that inequality destabilizes societies. I think the social science evidence on that front is crystal clear.

For ideas to prevail, many of their defenders have to die in obscurity. Their anonymous influence makes itself felt.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

You can never really live anyone else’s life, not even your child’s. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you’ve become yourself.

I never could get over the fact that The Pixies formed, worked and separated without America taking them to its heart or even recognizing their existence for the most part.

Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me.

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.

Sisters, do you realize the breadth and scope of your influence when you speak those things that come to your heart and mind as directed by the Spirit?

Women are the engine driving the growth in California’s economy. Women make California’s economy unique.

Only God Himself fully appreciates the influence of a Christian mother in the molding of character in her children.

The man who can dominate a London dinner-table can dominate the world.

I know from having had a child, and from having been a child myself, that children will copy you.

I have kind of a funny relationship with movies. I don’t have to see the whole movie to get an impression of it or to let it have an influence on me.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did – or did not do – to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.

Our enemy, the devil, wants to control us, and his target is our will. The main way he tries to influence our will is through lying to us.

The difference is slight, to the influence of an author, whether he is read by five hundred readers, or by five hundred thousand; if he can select the five hundred, he reaches the five hundred thousand.

Anyone who doesn’t have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

I speak directly to the people, and I know that the people of California want to have better leadership. They want to have great leadership. They want to have somebody that will represent them. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican, young or old.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

The time has come for all evangelists to practice full financial disclosure. The world is watching how we walk and how we talk. We must have the highest standards of morality, ethics and integrity if we are to continue to have influence.

I have a cult-like following because I exemplify what it is to be a human being.

When I did ‚Bird,‘ it was a surprise to some people, first because I wasn’t in it and second because most of the films I’d been doing were cop movies or westerns or adventure films, so to be doing one about Charlie Parker, who was a great influence on American music, was a great thrill for me.

Leadership is influence.

I believe that one person can make a difference.

Presumptuous for me to say, but at least – at a minimum – I’ve been able to influence the direction of the Democratic Party on foreign policy. And I’ve been relatively – presumptuous to say – relatively successful legislatively in the Senate, being able to win a lot of Republican friends, and being able to cross the aisle.

Well-spent aid money is saving lives for a few thousand dollars per life saved.

When someone does a small task beautifully, their whole environment is affected by it.

For me, the Immaculate Conception is the feast of ‚passive action,‘ the action that functions simply by the transmission through us of divine energy. Purity, in spite of outward appearances, is essentially an active virtue, because it concentrates God in us and on those who are subject to our influence.

As social animals, we are extremely susceptible to the moods of other people. This gives us the power to subtly infuse into people the appropriate mood for influencing them.

I think we all change each other’s paths. I don’t know which law idea that is in physics, but I don’t think any of us can live without affecting one another.

People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.

Words can be said in bitterness and anger, and often there seems to be an element of truth in the nastiness. And words don’t go away, they just echo around.

But there is a difference between cozying up to power and being close to power.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

The influence of ‚Hidden Fortress‘ comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it’s told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.

He who has great power should use it lightly.