Influential Individuals Quotes

I have met Madonna. I have met Oprah Winfrey. I have met some of the most phenomenal people alive.

The men who make history have not time to write it.

The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax.

Shmuky little people who wreak havoc on history

People that are really very weird can get into sensitive positions and have a tremendous impact on history.

Many of the world’s great movements, of thought and action, have flowed from the work of a single man.

What offends me the most when I hear criticisms about this so-called Africa bias is how quick we are to focus on the words and propaganda of a few powerful, influential individuals, and to forget about the millions of anonymous people who suffer from their crimes.

Many of these [big political] donors are my friends. Those people are not like charities ... They Want. These are total tough cookies. When they give millions and millions of dollars, they're not doing it for the good of the American Cancer Society. They're doing it for themselves.

History deals mainly with captains and kings, gods and prophets, exploiters and despoilers, not with useful men.

Powerful people have no regrets.

You can tell a lot about a person by who his or her heroes are.

This is what historians usually do, quibble about cause and effect when the point is, there are times when the world is in flux and the right voice in the right place can move the world. Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin, for instance. Bismark. Lenin.

I think we rarely recognize the fifth business in our lives at the time those people are changing us.

A person of your century: Great persons are of their time. Not all were born into a period worthy of them, and many so born failed to benefit by it. Some merited a better century, for all that is good does not always triumph. Fashions have their periods and even the greatest virtues, their styles. But the philosopher, being ageless, has one advantage: Should this not prove the right century, many to follow will.

The general public is easy. You don't have to answer to anyone; and as long as you follow the rules of your profession, you needn't worry about the consequences. But the problem with the powerful and rich is that when they are sick, they really want their doctors to cure them.

Sensible men of substantial means are what we wish to be ruled by.

Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.

The glory of a nation and an age is always the work of a few great persons, and it disappears with them.

The Law of the Few... says that one critical factor in epidemics is the nature of the messenger.

I love histories. I love learning. I love books that talk about people who made a real impact on history, because it always has to do with who they were at that time and what their personalities were like and what their strengths and weaknesses were.

There are exceptional people out there who are capable of starting epidemics. All you have to do is find them.

Great men are among the best gifts which God bestows upon a people.

We need people who influence their peers and who cannot be detoured from their convictions by peers who do not have the courage to have any convictions.

Dorothy Day, Cesar Chavez - these are people whose thoughts are so important.

You never know which people will affect your life.