I leave shreds of my soul on every experience.
Oriana FallaciRead
True power does not need arrogance, a long beard and a barking voice. True power strangles you with silk ribbons, charm and intelligence.
Interpretation
True power is subtle and doesn't rely on loudness or aggression, but rather on grace and intelligence.
In this quote, Oriana Fallaci emphasizes that genuine power is not about overt displays of dominance or intimidation, such as having a loud voice or a commanding presence. Instead, true power lies in the ability to influence and lead through charm, subtlety, and intellectual prowess, suggesting that effective leadership and authority stem from a deeper, more refined understanding rather than forceful posturing.
In practice
In a leadership seminar when discussing effective leadership styles.
I leave shreds of my soul on every experience.
I know ours is a world made by men for men, their dictatorship is so ancient it even extends to language.
A lot of women ask themselves why they should bring a child into the world? So that it will be hungry, so that it will be cold, so that it will be betrayed and humiliated, so that it will be slaughtered by war or disease? They reject the hope that its hunger will be satisfied, its cold warmed, that loyalty and respect will accompany it through life, that it will be a devote a life to the effort to eliminate war and disease.
You cannot govern, you cannot administrate, with an ignoramus.
What are the symbols of American strength, wealth, power and modernity? Certainly not jazz and rock and roll, not chewing-gum or hamburgers, Broadway or Hollywood. It's their skyscrapers. Their Pentagon. Their science. Their technology.
I am known for a life spent in the struggle for freedom, and freedom includes the freedom of religion.
By recognizing a favorable opinion of yourself, and taking pleasure in it, you in a measure give yourself and your peace of mind into the keeping of another, of whose attitude you can never be certain. You have a new source of doubt and apprehension.
Simple idea with powerful consequences: everyone who intersects your life knows something you don't.
It is only because the majority opinion will always be opposed by some that our knowledge and understanding progress... it is always from a minority acting in ways different from what the majority would prescribe that the majority in the end learns to do better.
We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It is an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order. [...] We take what we know a little too seriously.
My hunger and curiosity drive me forward in all directions at once.
You will learn a lot about yourself if you stretch in the direction of goodness, of bigness, of kindness, of forgiveness, of emotional bravery. Be a warrior for love.
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