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Control Quotes

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Control Quotes

“Civic imagination and innovation and creativity are emerging from local ecosystems now and radiating outward, and this great innovation, this great wave of localism that's now arriving, and you see it in how people eat and work and share and buy and move and live their everyday lives, this isn't some precious parochialism, this isn't some retreat into insularity, no. This is emergent. The localism of our time is networked powerfully. And so, for instance, consider the ways that strategies for making cities more bike-friendly have spread so rapidly from Copenhagen to New York to Austin to Boston to Seattle. Think about how experiments in participatory budgeting, where everyday citizens get a chance to allocate and decide upon the allocation of city funds. Those experiments have spread from Porto Alegre, Brazil to here in New York City, to the wards of Chicago. Migrant workers from Rome to Los Angeles and many cities between are now organizing to stage strikes to remind the people who live in their cities what a day without immigrants would look like. In China, all across that country, members of the New Citizens' Movement are beginning to activate and organize to fight official corruption and graft, and they're drawing the ire of officials there, but they're also drawing the attention of anti-corruption activists all around the world. In Seattle, where I'm from, we've become part of a great global array of cities that are now working together bypassing government altogether, national government altogether, in order to try to meet the carbon reduction goals of the Kyoto Protocol. All of these citizens, united, are forming a web, a great archipelago of power that allows us to bypass brokenness and monopolies of control.”

ChangePowerInnovationControlCityNetworkCitizen PowerInterconnectivityLocalismCity State
Author:Eric Liu
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“Once upon a time, slightly longer ago then before, there was a kingdom whose name and very existence have long since been forgotten. While the rest of the world was fighting for control of new lands across the seas, inventing ever more deadly weapons, and generously gifting their own religion to foreign people who didn't want it, this kingdom just splendidly was. In happier years, because of its removed location in an out-of-the-way valley, it was a lodestone for the artistic, the different, the clever: les charmantes.”

PastKingdomsControlTwisted TaleAs Old As TimeLessions On Kindness
Book:As Old as Time
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“Since my visit to the Hermitage, I had become more aware of the four figures, two women and two men, who stood around the luminous space where the father welcomed his returning son. Their way of looking leaves you wondering how they think or feel about what they are watching. These bystanders, or observers, allow for all sorts of interpretations. As I reflect on my own journey, I become more and more aware of how long I have played the role of observer. For years I had instructed students on the different aspects of the spiritual life, trying to help them see the importance of living it. But had I, myself, really ever dared to step into the center, kneel down, and let myself be held by a forgiving God? The simple fact of being able to express an opinion, to set up an argument, to defend a position, and to clarify a vision has given me, and gives me still, a sense of control. And, generally, I feel much safer in experiencing a sense of control over an undefinable situation than in taking the risk of letting that situation control me. Certainly there were many hours of prayer, many days and months of retreat, and countless conversations with spiritual directors, but I had never fully given up the role of bystander. Even though there has been in me a lifelong desire to be an insider looking out, I nevertheless kept choosing over and over again the position of the outsider looking in. Sometimes this looking-in was a curious looking-in, sometimes a jealous looking-in, sometimes an anxious looking-in, and, once in a while, even a loving looking-in. But giving up the somewhat safe position of the critical observer seemed like a great leap into totally unknown territory. I so much wanted to keep some control over my spiritual journey, to be able to predict at least a part of the outcome, that relinquishing the security of the observer for the vulnerability of the returning son seemed close to impossible. Teaching students, passing on the many explanations given over the centuries to the words and actions of Jesus, and showing them the many spiritual journeys that people have chosen in the past seemed very much like taking the position of one of the four figures surrounding the divine embrace. The two women standing behind the father at different distances the seated man staring into space and looking at no one in particular, and the tall man standing erect and looking critically at the event on the platform in front of him--they all represent different ways of not getting involved. There is indifference, curiosity, daydreaming, and attentive observation; there is staring, gazing, watching, and looking; there is standing in the background, leaning against an arch, sitting with arms crossed, and standing with hands gripping each other. Every one of these inner and outward postures are all too familiar with me. Some are more comfortable than others, but all of them are ways of not getting directly involved," (pp. 12-13).”

ControlOutsiderProdigal SonObserverRembrandt
Book:The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming
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“Your true power is not in your difference, but in your consistency of being different. The world will always adjust to consistency, yet struggle with change.”

DifferentInspirationNatureChangePowerSourceFutureUniqueInnovationAuthenticityConsistentControlWritersBrandingLongevityConsistencyStanding OutArtistsProjectionAuthorsNicheTrue NatureAuthentic SelfAuthenticRelationships 101BrandArtistic ExpressionStayingpositiveu ComThe Real YouBlending
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“Big Tech was the culmination of the corporate liberal ideology and the globalized economy it envisioned. This was an economy that by the early twenty-first century depended less and less on producing anything tangible, or on producers themselves, for that matter, but lavished ever greater rewards on the rarified, highly educated, largely urban technologist class.”

PowerEconomyCorruptionControlGlobalizationElitismJosh HawleyThe Tyranny Of Big TechBig Tech
Author:Josh Hawley
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“Manipulative advertising based on personal characteristics is far from the passive distribution of third-party content Congress envisaged when it adopted Section 230 a quarter century ago. And behavioral ads drive many of tech platforms’ worst pathologies—the surveillance, the addiction race, the data pilfering. But Section 230’s shield from liability is worth far more to Big Tech than even behavioral advertising. Section 230 is the giant government subsidy on which Big Tech feeds and has built its empire.”

PoliticsPowerCorruptionControlElitismJosh HawleyThe Tyranny Of Big TechBig TechSection 230
Author:Josh Hawley
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“She wasn’t a protagonist. She wasn’t even a side character. She was a filler. A backdrop with blood and breath and no arc.”

VoiceExistenceIdentityTraumaRevengeControlRebellionProphecyUnwrittenErasure
Book:The NPC Versus The Universe: A Metafictional Dystopian Thriller About Rigged Lives, Luck Privilege, and the NPC Who Starts Killing the Protagonists
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“The universe had no voice. Only script. But June had a voice. Cracked. Small. Raw. But hers.”

VoiceExistenceIdentityTraumaRevengeControlRebellionProphecyUnwrittenErasure
Book:The NPC Versus The Universe: A Metafictional Dystopian Thriller About Rigged Lives, Luck Privilege, and the NPC Who Starts Killing the Protagonists
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“Transformations are a part of life. We are constantly being changed by things changing around us. Nobody can control that. Nobody can control the environment, the economy, luck, or the moods of others. Compositions change. Positions change. Dispositions change. Experiences change. Opportunities and attitudes change. You will change.”

LifeOpportunityLife QuotesChangeAttitudePositionLivingSeasonsMoodControlOpportunitiesCompositionDispositionChange Your LifeExperiencesChangesTransformUncontrollableLife AttitudeAttitudesMoodsTransformationsConstant ChangeCompositionsConstant FluxFactors Of Life
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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“I cannot have an heir who thinks he is stronger than I am,” Alliddar leaned in closer to stare into Nye’s eyes. “It might have an adverse influence on my life expectancy, I hear. Which is why I asked Kerak to find me a flawed, ruthless Harbinger, someone with the will to annihilate Ivy if she becomes a witch, but not nearly strong enough to make me feel threatened in my position.”

PowerControlFlawsIvyHarbingerNyeAlliddar
Book:Winds of Strife
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“There are a lot of things in life we can’t control. It’s hard, especially when you’re a child, to feel like you have control over anything. Like you can change anything. But you can control your body and you can control your mind. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s very powerful. It can change everything.”

BodyMindfulnessControlPower Of The MindControl Of Your Mind
Book:Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
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“...it was only natural that this mutual connection between sea and observer be forged: they were kindred spirits. The same, however, could not be done with the implacable moon: that imperious stalwart, which agitated the currents and spurned its beholder. This aloof satellite was formidable, yet neurotic, and so in spite of its ferocity, its movements were simple to predict, thereby granting this fearsome creature a veil of placidity. Its magnitude of torque was easily outmatched by that forceful heave of fear portending any misalignment with its anticipated schedule of phases. It cycled through these on time and without hesitation, experiencing, all the while, a wide array of emotions in response to the dissatisfied countenance of the Master it served. And yet, these changes in mood remained prosaic and careful, dutiful to its Patron; thusly, betraying nothing of its own resentments or intentionality either to its dismissed observer or to its demanding Patron, divulging nothing even of the influence which it potentially wielded over the Patron Planet, but which, in its lunar insecurity, never reached full expression save for the idle touslings of liquid fur. Perhaps it was diffident or bashful—otherwise, it was simple and had little prevailing ambition. Its motives were immaterial, in fact, for its aspirations were easily eclipsed and often countermanded and so one could not help but anticipate in its withered mien a certain resignation, a retreat to introspection away from the gazes of those who mistook its surrender to deterministic forces as a duty held most solemn. To be sure, it was a specter oft-romanticized by dullard poets and priests who admired it for its calming reserve, its gentle wisdom in juxtaposition with the histrionic impatience of the sea: like a tired guardian and a screaming toddler with primacy afforded counterintuitively to the guardian. What mattered more, in fact, was the subject of its influence: the willful and disobedient medium which spurned that hands that molded it. The moldings were more like jostles really and for a time they felt just and reasonable, but soon they came to confine and until verily there was no movement available that was not otherwise preordained by the will of the master. The accursed moon!”

ControlRomanticismDisillusionmentIdealizationMoon And Sea
Book:Inward and Toward
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“When you try to stop someone’s physical attack with your own physical maneuver (a block), you are pitting power against power—and the stronger party will have an advantage. But if you can sidestep the attack, you will avoid the hit, retain your balance, and remain in control of the situation.”

PowerBalanceAdvantageBlockControlAttackHitManeuverSidestep
Book:Negotiation Genius: How to Overcome Obstacles and Achieve Brilliant Results at the Bargaining Table and Beyond
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“Have you ever thought that if one thing hadn't happened, a whole set of things never would have either? Like dominoes in time, a single event kicked off an unstoppable series of changes that gained momentum and spun out of control, and nothing was ever the same again. Don't ever doubt that a mere second can change your life forever.”

ChangeEventsThings HappenControlUnstoppableDominoesChain ReactionNot The SameSand Dollar Summer
Book:Sand Dollar Summer
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“We cannot control the way people interpret our ideas or thoughts, but we can control the words and tones we choose to convey them. Peace is built on understanding, and wars are built on misunderstandings. Never underestimate the power of a single word, and never recklessly throw around words. One wrong word, or misinterpreted word, can change the meaning of an entire sentence and start a war. And one right word, or one kind word, can grant you the heavens and open doors.”

ThinkingWritingIdeasWarReadingLanguagePeaceUnderstandingTalkingPowerDoorsIgnoranceCommunicationWordsCommunicateIntellectThoughtDialogueMeaningControlInterpretationUnderestimatePower Of WordsMisunderstandingUnderstandWordSpeakingTranslationSuzy KassemWarsMisinterpretationExchangeSentenceInterpretMisunderstandConveyTonesMisinterpretatedRight Word
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
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