Influencing People Quotes
Top 50 Influencing People
Quotes
No 1 (Best quote!)
A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
- Jackie
Robinson (1919-72), African American baseball player, pictured right
Three other great quotes say something similar:
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)
,the American civil rights campaigner, pictured right
My life is my argument.
- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965),
German philosopher and doctor, pictured right.
Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?
- Clarence (Henry Travers), George Bailey's guardian angel in the 1946 film
It's A Wonderful Life, pictured
right.
No 2
What gives me sorrow is the thought that I failed to cultivate my moral power... and failed to reform what was
unworthy.
- Confucius (551-479), Chinese
philosopher, pictured right.
Bertrand
Russell (1872-1970), the English philosopher, pictured right , also emphasizes the courage to do
what's right:
To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be
true.
No 3
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it’
(from the 1910 poem, If)
- Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), pictured right above, English writer.
No 4
The ultimate measure of a man is...where he stands at times of challenge and controversy,
- Martin Luther King (1929–68), American
civil rights leader, pictured right.
No 5
My strength is as the strength of ten, because my heart is pure.
(from the 1842 poem Sir Galahad)
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson 1809–92, English poet, pictured right.
So Stephen Covey, pictured right in his book,
The Seven Habits of Highly
Effective People (1989), says:
It is character that communicates most eloquently.
No 6
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.
(from the 1839 poem A Psalm of Life)
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), pictured right above, American poet.
No 7
Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.
- Plato (427-347 BC), Greek philosopher,
pictured right.
Two other philosophers agree:
Deeds make people.
- Gottfried
Leibniz (1646-1716) German philosopher and mathematician.
We are what we do.
- Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80),
French philosopher.
No 8
Right is might.
- Abraham Lincoln (1809–65), American
president, pictured right.
No 9
My only regret in life is that I am not someone else.
- Woody Allen (1935- ), film actor and director.
No 10
You have to demand respect in this world, ain’t nobody just gonna hand it to you... But, little one, ain’t
nobody’s respect worth more than your own.
(Papa to Cassie in the 1976 novel Roll of
Thunder, Hear my Cry)
- Mildred D. Taylor (1943- ), American writer, pictured right.
No 11
There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
(from the 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray)
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), pictured right, Irish writer.
No 12
Advice is seldom welcome; and those who want it the most always like it the least.
- Lord Chesterfield (1694–1773), English writer and politician, pictured right.
No 13
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.
- Groucho Marx (1895–1977), American film comedian, pictured right.
No 14
Have more than thou showest, speak less than thou knowest, lend less than thou owest.
(Fool in King Lear)
-William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.
The Sea Captain in Shakespeare's Twelfth
Night also comments:
What great ones do, the less will prattle of.
No 15
Men of good will. That’s all there is between us and the devil.
- Kenny O’Donnell (Kevin Costner), pictured right, in the 2000 film Thirteen Days.
No 16
Minds are not conquered by force, but by love and generosity.
- Benedict (or Baruch)
Spinoza (1632-77), Dutch philosopher, pictured right.
The Wizard, pictured right, (talking to the Tin Man in the
1939 filmThe Wizard of
Oz ) agrees:
A heart is not judged by how much you love, but how much you are loved by others,
No 17
Nothing great was achieved without enthusiasm.
- Ralph Waldo
Emerson (1803-82), American philosopher, pictured right.
No 18
Each person must live their life as a model for others.
- Rosa Parks (1913-2005), American
civil rights campaigner, pictured right .
No 19
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world.
- Anne Frank (1929-1945), child victim of
the Holocaust, pictured right.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962),
the American human rights campaigner, pictured right , agrees:
When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.
No 20
How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.
- Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British
prime minister, pictured right.
No 21
I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done.
- Gautama Buddha (563-483 BC),
founder of Buddhism, pictured right.
No 22
There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart,
(Emma Woodhouse in Emma).
- Jane Austen (1775-1815), English
writer, pictured right.
No 23
You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question
(from the 1956 novel The Fall)
- Albert Camus (1913-60), pictured right, French writer.
No 24
More tears have been shed over men's lack of manners than their lack of morals.
- Helen Hathaway, pictured right,1893–1932, American writer.
No 25
The secret of being a bore…is to tell everything.
- Voltaire (1694–1778), French
writer and philosopher, pictured right.
No 26
Speak softly and carry a big stick.
- Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919), American
president, pictured right.
No 27
Clothes don't make the man…but they go a long way toward making a businessman,
- Thomas Watson
Snr. (1874–1956), American boss of IBM 1914–56, pictured right.
Charles Dickens (1812-70), the
English writer, pictured right also wrote in Oliver
Twist:
Dignity, and even holiness too, sometimes, are more questions of coat and waistcoat than some people imagine
No 28
The robbed that smiles steals something from the thief.
(the Duke of Venice in Othello)
-William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.
No 29
Our doubts are traitors, and makes us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
(Lucio in Measure for
Measure)
-William
Shakespeare (1564-1616), English playwright, pictured right.
No 30
The key to failure is trying to please everybody.
- Bill Cosby (1937- ), American comedian, pictured right.
No 31
It's better to be looked over than overlooked.
- Mae West (1893-1980), American film star, pictured right.
No 32
I destroy my enemies when I make them my
friends.
- Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), pictured right, American
president.
Two other great thinkers
agree:
The best revenge is to be unlike him who
performed the injury
- Marcus Aurelius (121-180), the Roman emperor and
philosopher, pictured right ,
Wear a smile and make
friends.
- George Eliot
(1819-80), English writer (pictured right).
No 33
Judge not, that you be not judged.
- Jesus (c4 BC-c30 AD), founder
of Christianity.
Jesus also said similarly:
Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone.
No 34
I got results by selling my ideas than by telling people what to do.
- Alfred Sloan
(1875-1966), American boss of General Motors 1923-46, pictured right .
No 35
There s only one way... to get anybody to do anything... that is by making the other person want to do it
- Dale Carnegie, pictured right , How to Win Friends and Influence
People (1936)
So Carnegie also advises:
The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it.
No 36
A man can be as great as he wants to be.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945),
American president , pictured right.
No 37
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
- Voltaire (1698-1778), French
philosopher, pictured right .
No 38
Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men.
- John F. Kennedy (1917-63), American
president, pictured right.
No 39
It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.
- Harry S. Truman (1884-1972), American
president, pictured right .
No 40
Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it,
- Harry S. Truman, American president.
No 41
You may fool all the
people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people
all the time.
-
Abraham Lincoln (1809–65), American president,
pictured right
This was also said by Phineas
Barnum (1810-91), pictured right, the American
entertainer.
No 42
What will survive of us is love.
(from the 1964 poem Arundel Tomb)
- Philip Larkin (1922-85),
pictured right, English poet.
No 43
One man with courage makes a majority.
- Andrew
Jackson (1767-1845), pictured right, American president.
No 44
Greatness is nothing unless it be lasting,
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), pictured
right, French leader.
No 45
The people to fear are not those who disagree with you, but those who disagree with you and are too cowardly to
let you know.
- Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French
leader.
No 46
You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do,
- Henry Ford (1863-1947), American car maker,
pictured right.
No 47
In order to gain respect, you need to be true to yourself. There is no point in trying to be brutal, if it’s not
in your nature.
- Alan Sugar (1947-), English
businessman and compere of The Apprentice, pictured right
No 48
Don’t take yourself too seriously. Loosen up, and everybody around you will loosen up. Have fun.
- Sam Walton (1918-1992),
American founder of Wal-Mart,the world’s biggest retailer, pictured right
No 49
Really big people are, above anything else, courteous, considerate and generous...to everyone all the time,
- Tom Watson Jr. (1914-93),
boss of IBM, pictured right.
No 50
Truth never damages a cause that is just.
- Mahatma (Mohandas)
Gandhi (1869-1948), Indian leader and philosopher
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