Agressive music can only shock you once. Afterwards its impact declines. It’s inevitable.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

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.

A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.

Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.

War is a way of shattering to pieces… materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable and… too intelligent.

I don’t want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met. I want to go on living even after my death!

Fame hit me like a ton of bricks.

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

Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.

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

We have but one permanent home: heaven – that’s still the old truth that we always have to re-learn – and it’s only through the impact of sad experiences that we assimilate it.

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.

The men who followed Him were unique in their generation. They turned the world upside down because their hearts had been turned right side up. The world has never been the same.

The world is put back by the death of every one who has to sacrifice the development of his or her peculiar gifts to conventionality.

Avant-garde music is sort of research music. You’re glad someone’s done it but you don’t necessarily want to listen to it.

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

Make no mistake about why these babies are here – they are here to replace us.

I remember at the age of five travelling on a trolley car with my mother past a group of women on a picket line at a textile plant, seeing them being viciously beaten by security people. So that kind of thing stayed with me.

I’m very active on social media and see the huge impact it has on engaging with fans and being able to have a voice.

When the external factors over which one has no control in a way start to become negative, it starts to affect our creative juices.

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.

Assassination has never changed the history of the world.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it’s people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

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

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.

I did not learn the flaws of the criminal-justice system in law school or college or by reading about it. I grew up knowing the flaws and how it was disproportionately impacting the black community. It’s not academic for me.

Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may make you feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you feel the impact.

Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.

I have always enjoyed watching my songs make people cry.

People are like dirt. They can either nourish you and help you grow as a person or they can stunt your growth and make you wilt and die.

Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not.

The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.

We can all be successful and make money, but when we die, that ends. But when you are significant is when you help other people be successful. That lasts many a lifetime.

Things don’t have to change the world to be important.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

What I like to do is try to make a difference with the work I do.

To terrify children with the image of hell… to consider women an inferior creation. Is that good for the world?

The Vietnam War was a great tragedy for our country. And it is now far enough away so that one can study without using the slogans to see what’s really happened.

If it’s all instruction, you get annoyed with it and bored, and you stop reading. If it’s all entertainment, you read it quite quickly, your heart going pitty-pat, pitty-pat. But when you finish, that’s it. You’re not going to think about it much afterward, apart from the odd nightmare. You’re not going to read that book again.

With music, you often don’t have to translate it. It just affects you, and you don’t know why.

As an entrepreneur, I have been known for taking risks throughout my career, but leaving the European Union is not one of the risks I would want the U.K. to take – not as an investor, not as a father, and not as a grandfather. I am deeply concerned about the impact of leaving.

We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.

Change is inevitable. Change is constant.

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

Considering their impact, you might expect mosquitoes to get more attention than they do. Sharks kill fewer than a dozen people every year, and in the U.S. they get a week dedicated to them on TV every year.

I think 9/11 affected everybody in one way or another.

If you really love films, and you really want to get the full impact, there’s a huge difference between watching something on a small screen with a mediocre sound system and watching it on a giant screen in a giant theater with a huge beautiful sound system. I mean, the difference is electric.

When Paul Allen and I started Microsoft over 30 years ago, we had big dreams about software. We had dreams about the impact it could have.

No matter how bad any situation, cynicism has no positive impact. Watching the news, you might notice that cynicism and victimhood often seem to go hand-in-hand, but not for veterans.

The moral disapprobation of society has an impact on behavior in societies.

Prince turned experimental music into pop music. ‚When Doves Cry,‘ the whole ‚Purple Rain‘ soundtrack – he was inspired by the Cocteau Twins and new wave pop and brought it into R&B when he first started, and then it became this cool, next-level, kind of hard-to-digest music. Which is what I felt ‚House of Balloons‘ was.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

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

Next to religion, baseball has had a greater impact on our American way of life than any other American institution.

Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.

The truth of it is that every singer out there with songs on the radio is raising the next generation, so make your words count.

I’ve been blessed with talents to play this game and been put on a stage to impact a lot of people. I don’t want to take that for granted.

Speeches that are measured by the hour will die with the hour.

Music is always a commentary on society.

Wicked thoughts and worthless efforts gradually set their mark on the face, especially the eyes.