As Friedland had done and as Jobs would learn to do, he was able to turn charm into a cunning force, to cajole and intimidate and distort reality with the power of his personality
Brute force will sometimes get you through a challenge, but usually not without hurting and depleting yourself in the process.
Mine could not be a story about the building of character, but about its erosion, about the slow accumulation of small forces and events that ultimately dries the soul and leaves the heart empty.
The new race of warriors would be their hope, their salvation, their loves' destiny. But they too could be tainted. They too could be seduced by the black forces they had been created to fight against.
...heaven wouldn’t be like this earth, this tormented earth ruled by evil forces that tossed humanity to and fro like a slow clown in a two-bit rodeo.
Some man would come to her room. Maybe she would hesitate, and he'd grab her, pin her to the mattress, force her to cooperate.
Once you the forces that govern behavior,it's harder to blame the behaver
↑ top up position down ↓ bottom “The corruption of religious leaders, who were expected to be the source of spiritual force and regeneration, is the last step in the decay of a community.
He forced himself forward trying to seem innocent without acting like someone who was guilty who was trying to act innocent.
They hate because they fear, and they fear because they feel that the deepest feelings of their lives are being assaulted and outraged. And they do not know why; they are powerless pawns in a blind play of social forces.
Then they’re always trying to sell you something. Everything is based on forcing people to buy. If you can’t buy what they’re selling, you’re a zero in the system.
Friendship however is a plant which cannot be forced -- true friendship is no gourd spring up in a night and withering in a day.
The universe, they say, depended for its operation on the balance of four forces which they identified as charm, persuasion, uncertainty, and bloody-mindedness.
I wondered if all a person could hope for was illusion and luck, for I was forced to conclude that the world was fundamentally and appallingly dangerous. It is a lesson I will never forget.
To relinquish the futile effort to control change is one of the strengthening forces of true detachment & thus true love.
Freedom is not free! The Almighty offers these gifts contingent upon our willingness to turn to Him as a nation. It is a covenant relationship. That covenant is in force today, and the rules still apply.
But he also knew this centurion, this man of honour, would change her…by giving her love…and love was the most powerful force in the universe.
Faith is a footbridge that you don't know will hold you up over the chasm until you're forced to walk out onto it.
The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions. Defect in the understanding is ignorance; in reasoning, erroneous opinion.
In our loss and fear we craved the acts of religion, the ceremonies that allow us to admit our helplessness, our dependence on the great forces we do not understand.
Mars tugs at the human imagination like no other planet. With a force mightier than gravity, it attracts the eye to the shimmering red presence in the clear night sky...
