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When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.
Carter G. Woodson
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Controlling someone's thoughts allows you to influence their behavior without direct intervention.

Carter G. Woodson's quote highlights the profound impact of controlling a person's mindset on their subsequent behaviors. It suggests that if you can shape how someone thinks, you can effectively direct their actions and decisions, indicating the power of ideas and beliefs in guiding behavior.

Themes

ControlThinkingActionsInfluencePower

In practice

Example use cases

In a leadership workshop, this quote can be used to discuss the importance of mindset in influencing team behavior.

More from Carter G. Woodson

I am not afraid of being sued by white businessmen. In fact, I should welcome such a law suit.
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If Liberia has failed, then, it is no evidence of the failure of the Negro in government. It is merely evidence of the failure of slavery.
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If the Negroes are to remain forever removed from the producing atmosphere, and the present discrimination continues, there will be nothing left for them to do.
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Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.
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The different ness of races, moreover, is no evidence of superiority or of inferiority. This merely indicates that each race has certain gifts which the others do not possess.
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This assumption of Negro leadership in the ghetto, then, must not be confined to matters of religion, education, and social uplift; it must deal with such fundamental forces in life as make these things possible.
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