“Diplomacy is the velvet glove that cloaks the fist of power.”
“Responsible for wrapping the iron fist of authority in its velvet glove is Jane Axtell, head of the accountancy firm’s Human Resources department.”
Source: The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work (2009), p. 244.
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Alain de Botton 146
Swiss writer 1969Related quotes
Renew America rally in Orem, Utah, March 8, 2000. http://renewamerica.us/archives/speeches/00_03_08utah.htm.
2000
“I slowly strangle my enemies with a velvet glove.”
Io i miei nemici li strangolo lentamente col guanto di velluto.
Quoted in "Italienisch-ostafrika(1936-1941)" - Page 18 - by Stefan Plenk - 2008
“They wanted this iron fist to command them.”
Of troops sent to the Canadian frontier in the War of 1812, in notes for 8 November 1840.
Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington (1886)
“Doesn't worry me,' Jane replied, I'm an accountant.”
c. 8
Flying Dutch (1991)
“If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist”
1961, Address before the American Society of Newspaper Editors
Context: If the self-discipline of the free cannot match the iron discipline of the mailed fist-in economic, political, scientific and all the other kinds of struggles as well as the military-then the peril to freedom will continue to rise.
Source: The transformation of corporate control, 1993, p. 10 ; As cited in: François L'Italien, BÉHÉMOTH CAPITAL. Contribution à une théorie dialectique de la financiarisation de la grande corporation. Université Laval, 2012. p. 147 (Many of the following quotes came from this source)
Source: Principles of Economics (1998-), Ch. 1. Ten Principles of Economics; p. 4