Browse 1543 quotes about Command.
“He who rules must fully humor as much as he commands.”
“Whatever is enforced by command is more imputed to him who exacts than to him who performs.”
“The empire of woman is an empire of softness, of address, of complacency. Her commands are caresses, her menaces are tears.”
“That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he has published, if he does not command success, has at least deserved it.”
Source: Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think
“There are both dull correctness and piquant carelessness; it is needless to say which will command the most readers and have the most influence.”
“No command of art,
No toil, can help you hear;
Earth's minstrelsy falls clear
But on the listening heart.”
“High original genius is always ridiculed on its first appearance; most of all by those who have won themselves the highest reputation in working on the established lines. Genius only commands recognition when it has created the taste which is to appreciate it.”
Source: Thomas Carlyle: A History of the First Forty Years of His Life, 1795-1835
“Christianity commands us to pass by injuries; policy, to let them pass by us.”
Source: The Way to Wealth and Poor Richard's Almanac
“Cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon; cunning is a kind of shortsightedness, that discovers the minutest objects which are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance.”
Source: The spectator
“There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions--that is, to name them and describe them, to know their causes and the way in which they are excited.”
Source: The Modern Library Collection of Greek and Roman Philosophy 3-Book Bundle: Meditations; Selected Dialogues of Plato; The Basic Works of Aristotle
“As a creator of character his peculiarity is that he creates wherever his eyes rest ... With such a power at his command Dickens made his books blaze up, not by tightening the plot or sharpening the wit, but by throwing another handful of people upon the fire.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Virginia Woolf (Illustrated)
“To write a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as anyone would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.”
Source: Delphi Collected Works of William Hazlitt (Illustrated)
“Duty--the command of heaven, the eldest voice of God.”
Source: Daily Thoughts (EasyRead Super Large 24pt Edition)
“Command by instinct is swifter, subtler, deeper, more accurate, more in touch with reality than command by conscious mind. The discovery takes one's breath away.”
Source: The Joy of Sports: End Zones, Bases, Baskets, Balls, and the Consecration of the American Spirit
“God never meant that man should scale the Heavens
By strides of human wisdom. In his works,
Though wondrous, he commands us in his word
To seek him rather where his mercy shines.”
Source: The complete poetical works of William Cowper, with life and critical notice of his writings
“Be thankful that your lot has fallen on times when, though there may be many evil tongues and exasperated spirits, there are none who have fire and fagot at command.”
“In adverse hours the friendship of the good shines most; each prosperous day commands its friends.”
Source: The Tragedies of Euripides
“Nor turned I ween Adam from his fair spouse, nor Eve the rites Mysterious of connubial love refused: Whatever hypocrites austerely talk Of purity and place and innocence, Defaming as impure what God declares Pure, and commands to some, leaves free to all.”
“Old trees in their living state are the only things that money cannot command.”
Source: Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen: Richard I and the Abbot of Boxley. The Lord Brooke and Sir Philip Sidney. King Henry IV and Sir Arnold Savage. Southey and Porson. Oliver Cromwel and Walter Noble. Aeschines and Phocion. Queen Elizabeth and Cecil. King James I and Isaac Casaubon. Marchese Pallavicini and Walter Landor. General Kleber and some French officers. Bonaparte and the president of the senate. Bishop Burnet and Humphrey Hardcastle. Peter Leopold and the President Du
“Love is the great intangible. ... Frantic and serene, vigilant and calm, wrung-out and fortified, explosive and sedate -- love commands a vast army of moods. Hoping for victory, limping from the latest skirmish, lovers enter the arena once again. ... Love is the white light of emotion. ... Everyone admits that love is wonderful and necessary, yet no one can agree on what it is.”
“From Memorial Day to Labor Day, you may wear white shoes. Not before and not after. As a command, the White Shoe Edict should be clear and simple enough. Do not violate it. In a society in which everything else has become relative, a matter of how it makes you feel, a question between you and your conscience, and an opportunity for you to be really you, this is an absolute.”
Source: Miss Manners' Guide for the Turn-of-the-Millennium
“Why has no religion this command before all others: Thou shalt work?”
“Speed as a drug disorganizes the personality; speed as the goal of information dissemination commits a subtler crime. People are mainlining our words. We rarely read of the rational alternatives, only of the commands that all must change or else. This is a prescription for public panic.”
“Millions of angels are at God's command.”
Source: Angels: Ringing Assurance that We Are Not Alone
“The way to subject all things to thyself is to subject thyself to reason; thou shalt govern many, if reason govern thee. Wouldst thou be crowned the monarch of a little world? command thyself.”
Source: Enchiridion Institutions, Essays and Maxims, political, moral & divine. Divided into four centuries. By Francis Quarles
“Thy pride is but the prologue of thy shame; where vain-glory commands, there folly counsels; where pride rides, there shame lackeys.”
“I consider how little man is, yet, in his own mind, how great. He is lord and master of all things, yet scarce can command anything.”
Source: The works and correspondence of...Edmund Burke
“The Yiddish mentality is not haughty. It does not take victory for granted. It does not demand and command but it muddles through, sneaks by, smuggles itself amidst the powers of destruction, knowing somewhere that God's plan for Creation is still at the very beginning.”
Source: Aspects of I.B. Singer
“We owe to one another all the wit and good humour we can command; and nothing so clears our mental vistas as sympathetic and intelligent conversation.”
Source: Compromises
“Temperance keeps the senses clear and unembarrassed, and makes them seize the object with more keenness and satisfaction. It appears with life in the face, and decorum in the person; it gives you the command of your head, and secures your health, and preserves you in a condition for business.”
Source: Pearls of Great Price: or, Maxims, reflections, characters and thoughts, on miscellaneous subjects ... Selected from the works of the Rev. Jeremy Collier by the editor of
“What can be more honorable than to have courage enough to execute the commands of reason and conscience,--to maintain the dignity of our nature, and the station assigned us?”
Source: Essays upon several moral subjects
“I think that the human race does command its own destiny and that that destiny can eventually embrace the stars.”
Source: Les Blancs: The Collected Last Plays: The Drinking Gourd/What Use Are Flowers?
“If history is really relevant in today's world, the proposition doesn't command much respect. Perhaps the past is a different country, but if so no one much wants to travel there.”
Source: Improper behavior
“Of all "rights" which command attention at the present time among us, woman's rights seem to take precedence.”
“I cannot imagine a cat in an Obedience ring, running around in the hot sun and doing things on command. For it would not make sense. Whereas a dog is tolerant of your not making sense and only wants to fix things so you are happy.”
“In the name of equal rights, women are being stripped of the protections of the family and given no place except the perverse competition of a sexual market in which increasingly shock, deviation, and aggressiveness command a premium . . .”
“Upon the present theological computation, ten souls must be lost for one that is saved. At which rate of reckoning, heaven can raise but its cohorts while hell commands its legions. From which sad account it would appear, that, though our Saviour had conquered death by the resurrection, he had not yet been able to overcome sin by the redemption.”
Source: The Works of Laurence Sterne: With a Life of the Author
“She whom smiles and tears make equally lovely may command all hearts.”
“The effect of character is always to command consideration. We sport and toy and laugh with men or women who have none, but we never confide in them.”
Source: Egeria: Or Voices of Thought and Counsel, for the Woods and Wayside
“For two generations groups of women have given their lives and their fortunes to secure the vote for the sex and hundreds of thousands of other women are now giving all the time at their command. No class of men in our own or any other country has made one-tenth the effort nor sacrificed one-tenth as much for the vote.”
“As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by its shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, wills, hearts, and minds, still before Him, whose voice commands, whose love warns, whose truth makes fair our whole being. God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling voices, His voice is little likely to be heard.”
Source: MacLaren's Commentary- Expositions of Holy Scripture
“It is pleasant to be virtuous and good, because that is to excel many others; it is pleasant to grow better, because that is to excel ourselves; it is pleasant to mortify and subdue our lusts, because that is victory; it is pleasant to command our appetites and passions, and to keep them in due order within the bounds of reason and religion, because this is empire.”
Source: Works
“Almighty Power, by whose most wise command, helpless, forlorn, uncertain, here I stand, take this faint glimmer of thyself away, or break into my soul with perfect day!”
“Virtue is despotic; life, reputation, every earthly good, must be surrendered at her voice. The law may seem hard, but it is the guardian of what it commands; and is the only sure defence of happiness.”
Source: Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks
“The Seconds that tick as the clock moves along
Are Privates who march with a spirit so strong.
The Minutes are Captains. The Hours of the day
Are Officers brave, who lead on to the fray.
So, remember, when tempted to loiter and dream
You've an army at hand; your command is supreme;
And question yourself, as it goes on review--
Had it helped in the fight with the best it could do?”
“The less we parade our misfortunes the more sympathy we command.”
“anybody who has anything abusive to say of women, whether ancient or modern, can command a vast public in the popular press and a ready agreement from the average publisher.”
“Anger is a better weapon than tears; a burr commands more respect than a sensitive plant.”
Source: The Myrtle Reed Year Book: Epigrams and Opinions from the Writings and Sayings of Myrtle Reed
“See, then, how powerful religion is; it commands the heart, it commands the vitals. Morality,--that comes with a pruning-knife, and cuts off all sproutings, all wild luxuriances; but religion lays the axe to the root of the tree. Morality looks that the skin of the apple be fair; but religion searcheth to the very core.”
“Truly, a command of gall cannot be obeyed like one of sugar. A man must require just and reasonable things; if he would see the scales of obedience properly trimmed. From orders which are improper, springs resistance, which is not easily overcome.”
Source: The Pentamerone, Or the Story of Stories Fun for the Little Ones Translated from the Neapolitan by John Edward Taylor