“All "if" statements about the past are as dubious as prophecies of the future are. It seems fairly plausible that if Alexander or Ghengis Khan had never been born, some other individual would have filled his place and executed the design of the Hellenic or Mongolic expansion; but the Alexanders of philosophy and religion, of science and art, seem less expendable; their impact seems less determined by economic challenges and social pressures; and they seem to have a much wider range of possibilities to influence the direction, shape and texture of civilizations.” IfsArtPhilosophySeemsPastIndividualSocialBornChallengesInfluenceEconomicDesignPossibilityCivilizationShapesPressureImpactFilledDeterminedStatementsRangeProphecyExpansionTextureArt And SciencePlausibleDubiousPhilosophy And ReligionSocial PressureExpendables Author:Arthur Koestler
“It's not the possibility of Stalinism in the U.S. that's worrying me, it's the fact that the Stalinist C.P. seems doomed to fail and to bring down with it all the humanitarian tendencies I personally believe in--all the while acting as a mould on which its obverse the fascist mentality is made--and this recent massacre is certainly a sign of Stalinism's weakness not of its strength. None of that has anything to do with Marx's work--but it certainly does influence one's attitude towards a given political party.” BelieveDoeMadeFactsSeemsPoliticalPoliticsGivenPartyActingAttitudeWorryFailingInfluencePossibilityWeaknessHumanitarianTendenciesCommunismMentalityDoomedPolitical PartiesFascistsMassacresMouldStalinism Author:John Dos Passos
“There is no possibility of failure because you only control your actions and they only influence the probable evolution of your life over stochastic future paths. There is no failure, only feedback.” ActionPathInfluencePossibilityEvolutionInvestingFeedbackNo Failure Author:Arthur De Vany
“Yes, I am optimistic about the environment. If you assume business is exerting the most negative influence on the environment and also has the possibility to impact it positively, there are a bunch of forces that are impacting business that are fundamentally different from the situation 3 or 4 years ago.” IfsYearsDifferentForceBusinessSituationEnvironmentInfluencePossibilityNegativeYears AgoImpactAssumingBunchOptimisticPositivelyNegative Influence Author:Jeffrey Hollender
“The Americans have a very active presence and policy in every single part of the world and if we broke with them, we would lose any possibility of influencing them. They would go in for global unilateralism, and the world would be a more dangerous place.” IfsWorldWould BeLosesInfluenceDangerousPolicyPossibilityActiveBrokeDangerous PlacesUnilateralism Author:Denis Healey
“It is very easy to slowly lose your self confidence in a business where rejection is a possibility with every trial. It is a business after all and there are so many amazing actors out there that you'll never really see or hear of simply because they don't have someone of influence backing them.” SelfActorsEasyLosesInfluencePossibilitySelf ConfidenceTrialsRejection Author:Irena A. Hoffman
“It is no wonder if, under the pressure of these possibilities of suffering, men are accustomed to moderate their claims to happiness - just as the pleasure principle itself, indeed, under the influence of the external world, changed into the more modest reality principle -, if a man thinks himself happy merely to have escaped unhappiness or to have survived his suffering, and if in general the task of avoiding suffering pushes that of obtaining pleasure into the background.” IfsThinkingMenWorldRealitySufferingPleasureWonderPrinciplesInfluencePossibilityChangedTasksClaimsPressureBackgroundsUnhappinessModestSurvivedAvoidingAccustomedModeratesObtaining Author:Sigmund Freud
“Democracy means the power of the people and the possibility of influencing the governing parties. Russia had had enough experience with a one-party-system - we will not go back there.” PeopleMeanEnoughPartyDemocracyInfluencePossibilityRussiaGoverningHad Enough Author:Vladimir Putin
“The individual citizen has very little possibility of having any influence - of making his opinion felt in the decision-making.” LittlesIndividualFeltDecisionOpinionInfluencePossibilityCitizensDecision Making Author:Erich Fromm