Quotes About Control

This is the most frightening lesson of the Cultural Revolution: Without a sound legal system, a small group or even a single person can take control of an entire country. This is as true now as it was then.

To us Chairman Mao was God. He controlled everything we read, everything we heard, and everything we learned in school. We believed everything he said. Naturally, we knew only good things about Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Anything bad had to be the fault of others. Mao was blameless.

Many friends have asked me why, after all I went through, I did not hate Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution in those years. The answer is simple: We were all brainwashed. To us Chairman Mao was God. He controlled everything we read, everything we heard, and everything we learned in school. We believed everything he said. Naturally, we knew only good things about Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Anything bad had to be the fault of others. Mao was blameless.

I may not be in total control of what happens in my life, but I certainly am in charge of how I choose to perceive my experience.

Tears make you the villain and the unfeeling one, regardless of what you feel, simply because you can't produce them yourself. And whatever they say, I know women use them to get their own way:

Algorithms of Oppression

Facebook and its counterparts operate more like churches than courts; they are subject to influence by states and the wealthy, and all too content with disregarding the needs of their subjects in favor of those with power.

The male is a domestic animal which, if treated with firmness, can be trained to do most things.

Incidentally, that is why complaints against the weather are complaints against God Himself—He purposefully controls it just as it is happening. This is also why natural "disasters" are called "acts of God.

it is impossible to effectively parent from the driver's seat of a minivan.

The appointments secretary had taken Kilduff by the arm and pointed to the broad back of Lyndon Johnson. "He's got what he wants now,

You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.

Religion is like baseball," said Steve. "Great game, bad owners.

You don't explain to the janitorial staff how your company is a part of a sinister organization with goals of global infiltration and control. You just tell them to clean the floor.

Practically speaking, it was like carrying a Labrador retriever over a tightrope and having a squirrel race past.

It's amazing how quickly you start following the rules when someone sticks a cranial explosive to the base of your skull.

If you really want to kill a libriomancer, hook a bomb up to a big red button and tell him not to press it.

Should you simply walk away, no hard feelings? Whatever your decision, it will be a good one, because you have retained control of the negotiation.

treat every warm call as though it's the coldest one you ever made. When emotions run hot and heavy in negotiations, the high-pitched voice is a sure sign of need. The rushed delivery is another sure sign. While needy negotiators raise their voices, negotiators under control lower their voices. So lower your voice in times of inner turmoil. Slow down.

Another problem with concentrating on money and power as a mission and purpose is that you're scorekeeping, and scorekeeping means you're thinking about results over which you have no real control.

you are so dedicated to goals over which you have control, so oblivious to anything over which you don't have control, and so free of neediness that expectations shouldn't even enter into the equation.

Discipline is difficult. But without discipline, you will never be a great negotiator.