The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.

Everybody, to some extent, manipulates. Even children learn to cry when they want something. There are all kinds of subtle things we do to get others to follow our lead, not bother us, and so on.

Immense power is acquired by assuring yourself in your secret reveries that you were born to control affairs.

Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

We live in a day that nobody’s lived in before: where you can touch more people. The message I’ll speak tonight and the message that I speak at home, people in India will hear. It’s just an amazing day.

Electricity is really just organized lightning.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

Both the man of science and the man of action live always at the edge of mystery, surrounded by it.

When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family – not even my mother – who I could look to and be like, ‚I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.‘ So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that.

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.

Power over a man’s subsistence is power over his will.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

Scientific views end in awe and mystery, lost at the edge in uncertainty, but they appear to be so deep and so impressive that the theory that it is all arranged as a stage for God to watch man’s struggle for good and evil seems inadequate.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

Desperation is sometimes as powerful an inspirer as genius.

I would be lying if I didn’t admit sadness that our wonderful airline is merging with another. Because I’m not American, the U.S. Department of Transportation stipulated I take some of my shares in Virgin America as non-voting shares, reducing my influence over any takeover. So there was sadly nothing I could do to stop it.

Ambition is the immoderate desire for power.

Is science of any value? I think a power to do something is of value. Whether the result is a good thing or a bad thing depends on how it is used, but the power is a value.

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

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

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

Diana Ross is a big inspiration to all of us. We all grew up watching everything about her – her mike placement, her grace, her style and her class.

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.

The strength and power of a country depends absolutely on the quantity of good men and women in it.

We dance round in a ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows.

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

Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.

Kids are watching us. I experience it every single day. They hang on my every word, what I wear, what I say.

A song has to take on character, shape, body and influence people to an extent that they use it for their own devices. It must affect them not just as a song, but as a lifestyle.

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

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

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.

I’m grateful for the opportunities God gave me to minister to people in high places; people in power have spiritual and personal needs like everyone else, and often they have no one to talk to.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Power and speed be hands and feet.

To understand the power of the priesthood, we must know its limitations.

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.

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

One may say the eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.

I mean Facebook is no longer a company, it’s a country. 2 billion users. It can influence what we think, what we believe, how we vote, what we buy, even how we feel.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly arise and make them miserable.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent.

There is none made so great, but he may both need the help and service, and stand in fear of the power and unkindness, even of the meanest of mortals.

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

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

The only things one can admire at length are those one admires without knowing why.

I love artists like Prince, who hold on to that element of mystery.

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.

Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.

In a world of complex threats, our security and leadership depends on all elements of our power – including strong and principled diplomacy.

My experience with power, you can maintain it, or you get it taken from you. You get you some newfound power and go crazy, and it get taken from you quick.

Swimming has its educational value – mental, moral, and physical – in giving you a sense of mastery over an element, and of power of saving life, and in the development of wind and limb.

Our present moment is a mystery that we are part of. Here and now is where all the wonder of life lies hidden. And make no mistake about it, to strive to live completely in the present is to strive for what already is the case.