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.

I’m not a big believer in trying to jam stuff down somebody’s throat: ‚You’re going to do it my way.‘ I’d rather show by example and live my life and have people say, ‚You know what, I want to live like Joel has. He’s got peace and joy, and he seems content.‘

The more you are talked about the less powerful you are.

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

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

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

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.

The word ‚happy‘ would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

There is no power on earth that can neutralize the influence of a high, simple and useful life.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

I don’t think the Christian Right dominates America in the way some in the media believe they do.

I urge everyone to be trendsetters for Azza Suleiman. Let’s make it one fashion which everyone will want to follow.

In Hawaii, some of the biggest radio stations are reggae. The local bands are heavily influenced by Bob Marley.

Bhai was my hero and he had immense influence on me.

What I’d really like to control is not machines, but people.

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

Affluence means influence.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.

The South is very beautiful but its beauty makes one sad because the lives that people live here, and have lived here, are so ugly.

If we go on your iPhone and go to the dictionary and look up ‚humble,‘ 80 per cent of the definition is negative. It’s a controlling word. It’s a way to control the masses and to control the sheep.

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.

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

If you leave the smallest corner of your head vacant for a moment, other people’s opinions will rush in from all quarters.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

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

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

The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that’s true of everyone, don’t you?

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

The sadness of the women’s movement is that they don’t allow the necessity of love. See, I don’t personally trust any revolution where love is not allowed.

I believe in that old adage that ‚as goes California, so goes the country.‘

See, people are watching you. Especially your children. They’re taking in every single thing you do. They are like video cameras with legs. And they are always in the record mode. They learn more from what you do than from what you say.

There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.

There are massive efforts on the part of the internet’s corporate owners to try to direct it to become a technique of marginalisation and control.

The colored folks been singing it and playing it just like I’m doin‘ now, man, for more years than I know. I got it from them.

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.

It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.

Married or single, you sisters possess distinctive capabilities and special intuition you have received as gifts from God. We brethren cannot duplicate your unique influence.

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

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.

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.

I don’t think I ever thought of myself as Superman. But there were people who thought of me that way, and maybe I believed them a little.

When I was 8 years old, it mattered what my favorite singer said and wore and expressed opinions about.

Neil Young is my hero, and such a great example. You know what that guy has been doing for the past 40 years? Making music. That’s what that guy does. Sometimes you pay attention, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes he hands it to you, sometimes he keeps it to himself. He’s a good man with a beautiful family and wonderful life.

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.

I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can’t vent any anger against them; I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it’s mad that people like me are listened to – you know, rap stars and movie stars.

A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.

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

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

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

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