Quotes about control (3230 quotes, page 32)

“The time is fast coming when there will be no need for prisons, as individuals can be controlled from space. Terrorism will disappear because there will be no place for terrorists to hide.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

Share International Magazine

Time

“It is strange that many believe they cannot control themselves, but they can control others.”

Robert LeFevre (1911–1986) American libertarian businessman

Source: A Way to Be Free: The Autobiography of Robert LeFevre, Volume I, (1999), p. 21

“The lustful who punish beauty would be wiser to control lust.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Fresco (2000), Chapter 24, p. 181

Beauty

“When right posture (asana) has been attained there follows right control of prana and proper inspiration and expiration of the breath.”

Patañjali (-200–-150 BC) ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises

Patanjali, in “The Little Red Book of Yoga Wisdom”, p. 136.

“Everyone is using science and technology to enhance or to alter our body chemistry in order to stay healthy and be more in control of our lives. We are all transhumanists to varying degrees.”

Newton Lee American computer scientist

The Transhumanism Handbook, 2019

Science

“You do not need to resist, control or restrict the creations of others due to the fear that they will negatively affect you. There is more than enough room in this universe for any and all creations that could possibly be thought up. This is why for every unwanted thing, there is (or will eventually be) an antidote.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Universe , Fear

“I agree as to the doubtful value of competitive examination. The qualities which you really want, viz., self-control, self-reliance, habits of accurate thought, integrity and what you generally call trustworthiness, are not decided by competitive examination, which test little else than the memory.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Source: Letter to Lord Stanley (May 17, 1857), published in Florence Nightingale on Wars and the War Office: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. Vol. 15 (2011), edited by Lynn McDonald, p. 265. ( online on google books https://books.google.at/books?id=NvJ0CwAAQBAJ&pg=PA265)

Self-confidence , Memory

“Technology revolutionaries succeeded not because of some collectivist vision that seeks to regulate “fairness”, “neutrality”, “privacy” or “competition” through coercive state actions, or that views the Internet and technology as a vast commons that must be freely available to all, but rather because of the same belief as America’s Founders who understood that private property is the foundation of prosperity and freedom itself. Technology revolutionaries succeed because of the decentralized nature of the Internet, which defies government control. As a consequence, decentralization has unlocked individual self-empowerment, entrepreneurialism, creativity, innovation and the creation of new markets in ways never before imagined in human history...Around the world, the real threat to Internet freedom comes not from bad people or inefficient markets -- we can and will always route around them -- but from governments' foolish attempts to manage and control innovation. And it is not just the tyrannies we must fear. The road away from freedom is paved with good intentions.”

Rand Paul (1963) American politician, ophthalmologist, and United States Senator from Kentucky

2012-07-06
Rand Paul Wants to Save the Internet, Conservative-Style
Alex
Fitzpatrick
Mashable
http://mashable.com/2012/07/06/ron-rand-paul-internet-freedom/
2015-03-01

Imagination , History , Freedom , Bad luck

“Self-control is an illusion. It’s an illusion that occurs when both brains are aligned and pursuing the same course of action.”

Mark Manson book Everything Is Fucked

Self-confidence

“I have been impressed time and again by the schizophrenic character of many businessmen. They are capable of being extremely far‐sighted and clear‐headed in matters that are internal to their businesses. They are incredibly short sighted and muddle‐headed in mat ters [sic!] that are outside their businesses but affect the possible survival of business in general. This short sightedness is strikingly exemplified in the calls from many businessmen for wage and price guidelines or controls or incomes policies. There is nothing that could do more in a brief period to destroy a market system and replace it by a centrally controlled system than effective governmental control of prices and wages. The short‐sightedness is also exemplified in speeches by business men on social responsibility. This may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the ptirsuit [sic!] of profits is wicked and im moral [sic!] and must be curbed and controlled by external forces. Once this view is adopted, the external forces that curb the market will not be the social consciences, however highly developed, of the pontificating executives; it will be the iron fist of Government bureaucrats. Here, as with price and wage controls, business men seem to me to reveal a suicidal impulse.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

“A Friedman doctrine‐- The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (Sept. 1970)

Time , Business , Help , Suicide

“Humanity is entirely responsible for being at the root of the problems arising from global warming. We need to rethink the way we live on earth in order to preserve life. Global warming is out of control…. Time is not on our side, which is why I am calling on all young millennials to hasten this radical revolution. You are a part of nature and compassion decrees that you take care of it as much as you do yourselves. It is only through mutual support and co-operation that you will be able to contain disasters that are fuelled by economic and social injustice and are fuelled by greed, selfishness, and other negative states of mind…. You are responsible for the wellbeing of billions of humans and all manner of living species sharing the adventure of life on earth. It is up to you to protect natural resources and guard over air, water, oceans, forests, fauna and flora. To do so it is essential that you realize your potential for love and compassion in order to care for the earth. Learn to love it through sharing it rather than striving to possess it and thereby destroying it.”

Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet

A Call for Revolution (2017-2018)

Selfishness , Time , Support , Learning

“Well I know that you worry a lot about
Things you cant control
There are so many things wed like to have
But we just cannot hold, You've got to be kind to yourself
You've got to be kind to yourself”

Zooey Deschanel (1980) American actress, musician, and singer-songwriter

"Me and You".
Volume Two (2010)

Wedding

“The cloud controls the light.[...]It is the cloud that, holding the sun's rays in a sheaf as a giant holds a handful of spears, strikes the horizon, touches the extreme edge with a delicate revelation of light, or suddenly puts it out and makes the foreground shine.”

Alice Meynell (1847–1922) English publisher, editor, writer, poet, activist

"Cloud", pp. 16–17
The Colour of Life and Other Essays (1896)

Sun , Making love , Light

“I don't care if it hurts.
I wanna have control.
I want a perfect body.
I want a perfect soul.
I want you to notice
When I'm not around.
You're so fuckin' special;>br>I wish I was special.”

Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter

Creep
Lyrics, Pablo Honey (1993)

Perfection , Hurt , Soul

“Repression against the Amazigh people is still very much alive and is very likely to worsen, given that most North African countries are controlled by authoritarian monarchies and governments, where there is little room for social change and much less cultural change.”

Massin Akandouch (2001) Amazigh activist

Original quote in Catalan
September 9, 2020 Massin's Op-ed at Núvol.com Magazine. https://www.nuvol.com/llengua/la-bandera-il-legal-119777/

Change , People , Country

“You fail to understand, my friend. We do not control time. If anything, it controls us. We simply measure it.”

Michael Moorcock book The Time Dweller

The Time Dweller (p. 15)
Short fiction, The Time Dweller (1969)

Time , Understanding

“It is debasing to die the way one does; it is intolerable to be exposed to an end over which we have no control, an end which lies in wait for us, overthrows us, casts us into the unnameable. ”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

The New Gods (1969)

Way , Waiting

“Guns are not the cause of the boy crisis, but as we are working on the causes, the control of guns can limit the damage of dad-deprived sons.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 229

Boy

“The English race, consequently, has long and successfully studied the art of curbing executive power to the constant neglect of the art of perfecting executive methods. It has exercised itself much more in controlling than in energizing government, It has been more concerned to render government just and moderate than to make it facile, well-ordered,and effective.”

Woodrow Wilson The Study of Administration

Source: 1880s, "The Study of Administration," 1887, p. 206;

Study , Art , Perfection , Making love

“The Communists and Fascists are engaged in a sham struggle of ideas. The actual forms of government under which Fascists and Communists live are almost identical. One claims to abolish private property and attacks the other as its defender. But the property of Russia is not controlled by the people, but by the bureaucracy, operating in the name of the people, just as it is in Germany, where you get your head cut off if you try to hold your property in gold or in anything except German paper.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
p. 62

Idea , People

“A great many people say that there is a great battle going on in the world: between Fascism and Communism. Fascism is represented as Capitalism in its ultimate and final form, when it controls the state wholly. Communism is represented as the final expression of democracy. But this theory was invented by fascists and communists. To a democrat, looking on, it seems like a sham battle.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
Source: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)
pp. 29-30

World , Democracy , People , Communication

“We are told by physicians and scientists that thousands of cells in the human brain are still dormant and, consequently, that the average human being uses only a small part of his equipment. The area of the brain which is found around the pineal gland is that connected with the intuition, and it is these cells which must be roused into activity before there can be any real intuitive perception which, when aroused, will manifest soul control, spiritual illumination, true psychological understanding of one's fellowmen, and a development of the true esoteric sense, which is the objective before you at this time.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Glamour: A World Problem (1950), Certain Preliminary Clarifications, p. 2

Soul , Time , Understanding , Sense

“The reality is that racial lynchings were a frequent and normal feature of life in the South. This unique method of murder was a devastating form of terrorism that imposed a constant threat to all black people. The white authority structure did not only tolerate or encourage these killings but used the fear of lynchings to control and oppress black people.”

Guy P. Harrison (1963) American skeptic author

Fear , Life , Reality , People

“I’m going to go obsessively run diagnostics on systems I know are solid so I can feel like I have control of something.”

Daniel Abraham (1969) speculative fiction writer from the United States

Source: The Expanse, Tiamat's Wrath (2019), Chapter 30 (p. 319)

Feeling

“I'm interested in truth, I like science. But truth's a menace, science is a public danger. As dangerous as it's been beneficent. … It's curious … to read what people in the time of Our Ford used to write about scientific progress. They seemed to imagine that it could go on indefinitely, regardless of everything else. Knowledge was the highest good, truth the supreme value; all the rest was secondary and subordinate. True, ideas were beginning to change even then. Our Ford himself did a great deal to shift the emphasise from truth and beauty to comfort and happiness. Mass production demanded the shift. Universal happiness keeps the wheels steadily turning; truth and beauty can't. And, of course, whenever the masses seized political power, then it was happiness rather than truth and beauty that mattered. Still, in spite of everything, unrestricted scientific resarch was still permitted. People still went on talking about truth and beauty as though they were sovereign goods. Right up to the time of the Nine Years' War. That made them change their tune all right. What's the point of truth or beauty or knowledge when the anthrax bombs are popping all around you? That was when science first began to be controlled — after the Nine Years' War. People were ready to have even their appetites controlled then. Anything for a quiet life. We've gone on controlling ever since. It hasn't been very good for truth, of course. But it's been very good for happiness. One can't have something for nothing. Happiness has got to be paid for.”

Aldous Huxley book Brave New World

Source: Brave New World (1932), Mustapha Mond, in Ch. 16

Imagination , Reading , Time , War

“[Labour has] always believed that the community as a whole should have a greater control over these “commanding heights of the economy.””

Neil Kinnock (1942) British politician

Source: ‘Introduction’, in Why Vote Labour? (1979), p. 3, quoted in Tudor Jones, ‘Neil Kinnock's socialist journey’, Contemporary Record, Volume 8, Issue 3 (1994), p. 569

Communication

“[W]e understand that if the child were to give in to the overpowering character of reality and experience he would not be able to act with the kind of equanimity we need in our non-instinctive world. So one of the first things a child has to do is to learn to “abandon ecstasy,” to do without awe, to leave fear and trembling behind. Only then can he act with a certain oblivious self-confidence, when he has naturalized his world. We say “naturalized” but we mean unnaturalized, falsified, with the truth obscured, the despair of the human condition hidden, a despair that the child glimpses in his night terrors and daytime phobias and neuroses. This despair he avoids by building defenses; and these defenses allow him to feel a basic sense of self-worth, of meaningfulness, of power. They allow him to feel that he controls his life and his death, that he really does live and act as a willful and free individual, that he has a unique and self-fashioned identity, that he is somebody—not just a trembling accident germinated on a hothouse planet that Carlyle for all time called a “hall of doom.””

Ernest Becker book The Denial of Death

We called one’s life style a vital lie, and now we can understand better why we said it was vital: it is a necessary and basic dishonesty about oneself and one’s whole situation. This revelation is what the Freudian revolution in thought really ends up in and is the basic reason that we still strain against Freud We don’t want to admit that we arerevelation is what the Freudian revolution in thought really ends up in and is the basic reason that we still strain against Freud. We don’t want to admit that we are fundamentally dishonest about reality, that we do not really control our own lives. We don’t want to admit that we do not stand alone, that we always rely on something that transcends us, some system of ideas and powers in which we are embedded and which support us. This power is not always obvious. It need not be overtly a god or openly a stronger person, but it can be the power of an all-absorbing activity, a passion, a dedication to a game, a way of life, that like a comfortable web keeps a person buoyed up and ignorant of himself, of the fact that he does not rest on his own center. All of us are driven to be supported in a self-forgetful way, ignorant of what energies we really draw on, of the kind of lie we have fashioned in order to live securely and serenely. Augustine was a master analyst of this, as were Kierkegaard, Scheler, and Tillich in our day. They saw that man could strut and boast all he wanted, but that he really drew his “courage to be” from a god, a string of sexual conquests, a Big Brother, a flag, the proletariat, and the fetish of money and the size of a bank balance.
Human Character as a Vital Lie
The Denial of Death (1973)

Despair , Life , Confidence , Time

“If a man who claims to see the future is a fool,
how much more so, the man who believes he can control it?
We think we steer the ship of fate,
but all of us are guided by unseen stars.”

Megan Whalen Turner book Thick as Thieves

Enoclitus (Epigraph)
Thick as Thieves

Fate , Future , Star , Fools

“It is almost always impossible to get the fascist party together without using some anti-capitalist slogans, in the early stages at any rate, of the necessary propaganda. And this type of propaganda may have so coloured the minds of the rank and file of the Fascist party as to make them difficult adequately to control.”

John Strachey (1901–1963) British politician and writer (1901-1963)

Source: The Coming Struggle for Power (1932), p. 262

Making love

“When we think about how we address problems in this country, we often start from a place of trickle-down justice. So using white folks as the control we say, well, if we make things better for white folks then everybody else is going to get free. But actually it doesn't work that way.... When we talk about the wage gap, we often say women make 78 cents to every dollar that a man makes. You all have heard that before. But those are the statistics for white women and white men. The reality is that black women make something like 64 cents to every 78 cents that white women make. When we talk about Latinas, it goes down to about 58 cents. If we were to talk about indigenous women, if we were to talk about trans women, it would even go further down. So again, if you deal with those who are the most impacted, everybody has an opportunity to benefit from that, rather than dealing with the folks who are not as impacted, and expecting it to trickle down.”

Alicia Garza (1981) Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter International movement

An Interview with the Founders of Black Lives Matter, Ted Talks, https://www.ted.com/talks/alicia_garza_patrisse_cullors_and_opal_tometi_an_interview_with_the_founders_of_black_lives_matter?language=en (October 2016)

Justice , Country , Problem , Thinking

“I will work in the U.S. Senate to support a robust public health response so that we can defeat this virus, putting Georgia’s own Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the lead, trusting medical expertise, doctors, and scientists to bring the tools to bear, the technology to bear, the ingenuity to bear, and the resources to bear necessary to stop the spread of this virus to defeat it and to get our daily lives back — and to rush direct economic relief to people who need help right now.”

Jon Ossoff (1987) American politician

Quoted in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Jolt: Raphael Warnock exults, Jon Ossoff claims victory, and Republicans wonder what happened, (6 January 2021)

Support , People , Help , Health

“Wanting to be a DJ and start playing with the computer and the controller is like trying to be a player and start playing with the Play Station.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Voler fare il DJ e iniziare a suonare con il computer e il controller, è come voler fare il calciatore e iniziare a giocare con la Play Station.
Source: prevale.net

“You can't control how lucky you are, you can't control how smart you are, but you can control how hard you work.”

Michael Bloomberg (1942) American businessman and politician, former mayor of New York City

“We need to be there walking alongside the Aboriginal people. And they appreciate us being there, but they’ve had their lives dominated by others, controlled by others.”

Charles Gauci (1952) Bishop of Darwin

People

“The rising prices and scarcity of some articles of food shows that there is no control of profits.”

Timothy Quill (1901–1960) Early Dáil member, cooperative organiser, agriculturalist

Irish Press (1941)
By Quill:, 1940s

Food

“Influence without control is a weapon of mass destruction.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

“Withstanding hardships is a sort of sport. You can’t control how life plays, but you can control your defensive strategy.”

Isaac Mashman (2000) businessman, speaker

Sport , Life

“The eye of the soul cannot be led astray when its veil, by which I mean the body, is refined to near-transparency through self-control.”

Diadochos of Photiki (400–486) Byzantine saint

§ 71
On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination (480 AD)

Self-confidence , Soul

“Only by proving that we are superior to the savages, not only through our power to kill them but through our entire way of life, can we control them as they are now, in their present stage; it is necessary for their own well-being, even more than ours.”

Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) Welsh journalist and explorer

Source: Leopold II, Het hele Verhaal, Johan Op De Beeck Horizon, 2020 https://klara.be/leopold-ii-aflevering-6 ISBN 9789463962094 Stanley writes this on his first expidition commissioned by King Leopold II of Belgium after describing with horror the horrible scenes of atrocities and cannibalism that take place in Congo.

Way , Life

“We can either make our choices deliberately or allow other people's agendas to control our lives.”

Greg McKeown (author) book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Popular Quotes, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

Making love , People

“You would think that pot had some kind of power; I mean come on, it’s a plant, not a reason for living. Controlled by a plant, how hilarious. A plant! A fucking plant!”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Get In The Van

Thinking

“All of us are responsible for the communication we make, for the information we share, for the control that we can exert over fake news by exposing it. All of us are to be witnesses of the truth: to go, to see and to share.”

Felix Femi Ajakaye (1962) Nigerian catholic priest

National Unrest: Address the nation now – Catholic Bishop tells Buhari https://dailypost.ng/2021/05/16/national-unrest-address-the-nation-now-catholic-bishop-tells-buhari/ (May 16, 2021)

Truth , Making love , Communication

“In a libertarian society, big business wouldn’t be so big, since they couldn’t destroy their competition through government regulation. Without government control of the airways, more radio and television stations would be available and could not be shut down on political whim.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Short Answers to the Tough Questions: How to Answer the Questions Libertarians Are Often Asked, (2012), p. 230

Business

“We reap as we sow. In trying to control others, we find ourselves controlled. In failing to honor our neighbor's choice, we create a world of poverty and strife.”

Mary Ruwart (1949) American scientist and libertarian activist

Source: Healing Our World: The Other Piece of the Puzzle, (1993), p. 260

World

“Corporations are good things. They encourage people to take risk. They're smart vehicles for building wealth, but they also have to be controlled. ...The reason is, they are soulless entities. A corporation has no morals and its purpose is to make money.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

The Tyrant Next Time (November 7, 2019)

Money , Wealth , Making love , People

“People do not consciously and rationally choose the form of their society. Societies develop through processes of social evolution that are not under rational human control.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Some Principles of History", paragraph 106
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

People

“Germany and England have undertaken all steps to avoid a European war. ... [W]e have lost control and the landslide has begun, As a political leader I am not abandoning my hope and my attempts to keep the peace as long as my démarche in Vienna has not been rejected.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Speech to the Prussian Ministry of State (30 July 1914), quoted in Konrad H. Jarauschl, ‘The Illusion of Limited War: Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg's Calculated Risk, July 1914’, Central European History, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Mar., 1969), p. 69

War , Peace , Hope

“You don't always control your circumstances, but you can always control your response.”

James Mattis (1950) 26th and current United States Secretary of Defense; United States Marine Corps general

Source: Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead (2019), p. 6

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Religion , Wisdom , Knowledge , Science

“Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.”

John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) 35th president of the United States of America

History , Way

“we have done an incredible job, everything is under control”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

referring to the United states handling of the Covid Pandemic
interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaaTZkqsaxY by w:Jonathan Swan of Axios on w:HBO
2020, August 2020

“I am made to combat crime, not to govern it. The time is not here where good men can serve their patrie with impunity; the defenders of liberty will only be outcasts, as long as the horde of rogues is in control.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Last Speech to the National Convention (26 July 1794)

Time , Men

“A completely new attitude will take place in relation to work. Through the power of sound, man will build and create the artefacts of his civilization and control his environment, relating it to his real needs.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (1980)

“The resilience of democracy lies in its self-cleansing effect. Control and correction are the cleansing agents of democracy. Where they are lacking, democracy dies a silent death.”

Jules Sedney (1922–2020) Prime Minister of Suriname (1922-2020)

The Future of Our Past (1997)

Democracy , Death

“We can't control what's going to happen but we can grow in awareness of what is happening.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

How to Meditate: A Practical Guide to Making Friends with Your Mind (2008)

“Of course, you can sit down and have something you want to say. But then you must let its expression be born in you and on the paper. Don't hold too tight; allow it to come out how it needs to rather than trying to control it.”

Natalie Goldberg book Writing Down the Bones

Essay, "Writing is not a McDonald's hamburger". p.39
Writing Down the Bones (1986)

“The basic unit of writing practice is the timed exercise.
1. Keep your hand moving.
2. Don't cross out.
3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, grammar.
4. Lose control.
5. Don't think. Don't get logical.
6. Go for the jugular.
[…] That is the discipline: to continue to sit.”

Natalie Goldberg book Writing Down the Bones

Essay, "First thoughts". p.8, 9
Writing Down the Bones (1986)

Time , Thinking , Exercises

“Although my mood swings were the logical and deterministic results of my inputs, they were dismayingly hard for me to foresee, let alone control.”

Rudy Rucker book Mathematicians in Love

Source: Mathematicians in Love (2006), Chapter 4, “Hypertunnel at the Tang Fat Hotel” (p. 151)

Mood