Influential people aren’t buffeted by the latest trend or by public opinion. They form their opinions carefully, based on the facts. They’re more than willing to change their mind when the facts support it, but they aren’t influenced by what other people think – only by what they know.
We are not quitters. Britain has always gone out there; we have probably been more influential than any other country in shaping our world and the way it has thought about itself, the way we interact as nations.
My acting teacher in high school was really influential, and we still keep in touch.
I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.
I did a number of local children’s theater plays growing up, but in 5th grade, I had some good times on stage making people laugh as a troll in ‘The Hobbit.’ That solidified my dream to be on ‘Saturday Night Live,’ which was hugely influential for me growing up.
Universities want to recruit the students that they believe will best represent the university while in school and beyond. Students with a robust social media presence and clearly defined personal brand stand to become only more influential.
Alasdair MacIntyre is one of the world’s most influential living moral philosophers. He has written 30 books on ethics and held a variety of professorial chairs over the past four decades in North America.
Even when influential political and media figures vehemently complained about the criticisms I wrote, Salon’s editors unfailingly stood behind my work.
‘Favoritism’ is always a factor, and pressure always build for the appointment of friends of influential supporters of the President, or for the nominees of powerful Member of Congress from the incoming President’s party.
To me, the Seventies were very inspirational and very influential… With my whole persona as Snoop Dogg, as a person, as a rapper. I just love the Seventies style, the way all the players dressed nice, you know, kept their hair looking good, drove sharp cars and they talked real slick.
Theatre outings are my favourite thing to spend money on. The most influential play I saw was ‘Bent,’ which starred Ian McKellen. And I loved the original performance of ‘The Rocky Horror Show,’ with Richard O’Brien and Tim Curry at the Royal Court, when I was about 15.
Obviously the original ‘Tron’ was a very influential movie for its time, so to be a part of the second one is very exciting.
Any observations from the Moon or a sense of realising this or that about the greater meaning of things wasn’t as influential for me as the experience of coming back and dealing with being a person who’s been to the Moon.
About the gnostic writers themselves and the setting in which they lived we know little, although gnostic Christians were influential enough to be denounced at length.
People in the media and press often say they’ve never been good at math. It might be that people that consider themselves creative didn’t consider themselves good at math or didn’t find math interesting at those early stages. And those creative people are disproportionately represented in those influential roles.
I went to the William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, where I had a teacher really named Edward Shakespeare. He was a very influential figure in my childhood – I acted in high school a few times, but Mr. Shakespeare got me to lead in ‘The Crucible.’ I played John Proctor.
You don’t have to be a ‘person of influence’ to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they’ve taught me.
I’m one of the highest-paid television people in the world. I feel like I’ve made a difference in my viewers’ lives, that I’ve been influential.
If feminism wasn’t powerful, if feminism wasn’t influential, people wouldn’t spend so much time putting it down.
I want to be influential as a legislator.
When influential people speak, conversations spread like ripples in a pond. And those ripples are multidirectional; influencers inspire everyone around them to explore new ideas and think differently about their work.
It’s not about being the biggest or the place with the most pins in a map. We want to be the most influential. We talk about trying to build the most influential agency in the world.
In a repressive society, a writer can be deeply influential, but in a society that’s filled with glut and repetition and endless consumption, the act of terror may be the only meaningful act.
For 22 years, Bandar bin Sultan was Saudi Arabia’s influential, irrepressible ambassador in Washington.
Several people I had conversations with were hugely influential. People who found internal inconsistency in Westboro’s ideology. It was the first thing that allowed me to recognize that Westboro was wrong.
I think having a vision can make someone an influential man. I’m not talking about acting or anything like that, I’m talking about people I admire, whether it’s a writer or a musician or a sports figure or a politician, whatever.
Jose Marti, known as ‘the Apostle of Cuban Independence,’ was an influential poet, journalist, and political theorist who became a symbol for the Cuban people’s bid for independence. The concepts of freedom, liberty, and self-determination feature prominently in his work.
I loved ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse.’ That was one of the most influential movies ever. You know that genre with the nerdy girl, and she redeems herself in the end. Like ‘Napoleon Dynamite.’ And in ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse,’ she doesn’t. She sucks. It’s like, that’s what’s real. That’s what’s heartbreaking.
Leon Trotsky, Stalin’s worst enemy, was far and away his most influential 20th-century interpreter, shaping the views of a generation of historians, from Isaac Deutscher onward.
Guys like Chuckie, Laidback Luke, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren and many other Dutch DJs were all influential for me growing up.
The major obstacle to a religious renewal is the intellectual classes, who are highly influential and tend to view religion as primitive superstition. They believe that science has left atheism as the only respectable intellectual stance.
However you feel about Dimebag, this is one of the most influential metal guitar players of the ’90s. I was just talking to someone that I am hiring to bring on the tour who said that, when he was at the funeral, that Eddie Van Halen came and put his striped guitar in the coffin. That’s a pretty big deal.
My dad was very influential with the music he exposed me to. He was really into blues and folk, so he’d play me guys like Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker and Richie Havens – a lot of very emotional players.
‘The Man in the High Castle’ was not the first alternative history novel, nor even the first Nazis-win-the-war novel, but it is still probably the most influential book in the genre.
I had three influential teachers. The first was Uta Hagen. The second two, Bobby Lewis and my late husband, Charles Kakatsakis, were both from the Actors Studio.
We realize our messages are influential.
I’ve always been a comedy nerd, and ‘Partners in Crime’ was probably more influential for me than anything else because it was not only standup, but Robert Townsend had those short films.
There’s something about the power of influential correspondents tweeting something that has become the fastest way to get a story moving. It will turn into something much faster and much bigger than it would have.
Christian Science has been enormously influential in our religious history, and the church is very powerful. It has won an extraordinary number of legal battles in this country. It has succeeded in passing a number of what are called ‘religious exemption laws.’
The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.
Sports is a unique thing in our country. It’s so influential. It’s almost like a sacrament for religion.
I’ve already exceeded my expectations for myself. I’m one of the most influential people! I mean come on! I wanted to be… I never thought the things I’ve experienced in my life, I didn’t think that was the life that I was gonna get to live.
Of all the rabbinic sages of antiquity, perhaps none was more influential or famous than Rabbi Akiva.
Growing up in Highland Park, in high school, I had some very influential teachers: I had a math teacher who taught calculus that helped me learn to be in love with mathematics; I had a chemistry teacher who inspired us to work what was in the class and to go beyond.
Anything I wanted to do and achieve has not been influential in my life, but my failures have.
