Quotes About Control

To know a thing does not enable us, always, to prevent its happening, but after all the things that we know we do hold, if not in our hands, at any rate in our minds, where we can dispose of them as we choose, which gives us the illusion of a sort of power to control them

That feeling of veneration which we always have for those who hold, and exercise without restraint, the power to do us harm.

that feeling of veneration which we always have for those who wield unrestrained power to do us harm.

No por saber una cosa se la puede impedir; pero siquiera las cosas que averiguamos las tenemos, si no entre las manos, por lo menos en el pensamiento, y allí están a nuestra disposición, lo cual nos inspira la ilusión de gozar sobre ellas una especie de dominio

I don't know what religious people do. I kind of wished I'd been a Christian with the blind faith that God is doing the right thing. As a Buddhist, you feel like you have more control over the situation, and that you can change your karma.

My design is organic, I don't control architecture, I grow it

The problem is that when government controls the economy, those who can influence government keep winning, and everybody else just stays the same.

Outward objects cannot take hold of the soul, nor force their passage into her, nor set any of her wheels going. No, the impression comes from herself, and it is her own motions which affect her. As for the contingencies of fortune, they are either great or little, according to the opinion she has of her own strength.

Do not suffer a sudden impression to overbear your judgment.

Consider that everything is opinion, and opinion is in your power. Take away then, when you choose, your opinion, and like a mariner who has rounded the headland, you will find calm, everything stable, and a waveless bay.

Passions stem from frustrated desire.

The best answer to anger is silence.

Then isn't it better to do what's up to you - like a free man - than to be passively controlled by what isn't, like a slave or a beggar?

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.

There is nothing happens to any person but what was in his power to go through with.

This Being of mine, whatever it really is, consists of a little flesh, a little breath, and the part which governs.

So this is (a manager's) dilemma: The manager must retain control and focus people on performance. But she is bound by her belief that she cannot force everyone to perform the same way. ... The solution is as elegant as it is efficient: Define the right outcomes and let each person find his own route toward these outcomes.

Prohibition is to abstain from intoxicating liquor, as it makes us morbid and sometimes drunk. But we get drunk every day, nevertheless, not so much by the strength of what we sip from the cup, but that which we eat, the water we drink, and the air we inhale, which at fermentation conspire at eventide to make us so drunk and tired that we lose control of ourselves and fall asleep. Everybody is a drunkard, and if we were to enforce real prohibition we should all be dead.

It is quite possible for leaders to become self-promoting without realizing it. Over time, defending their reputation becomes important to retaining and growing control. They become harder to disagree with because of the combination of the control they exert within the formal structure and the relational support they can gather privately outside of it.

We all have our crosses to bear. We carry them heavily, out of love for our brothers in arms. But sometimes you have to let go of the idea that anyone down here is in control.

Because in the end, your enemy must ultimately fear you, understand your supremacy.

Anger so clouds the mind, that it cannot perceive the truth.

An angry man opens his mouth and shuts his eyes.