Dictate Quotes & Sayings

If I don't like the way something unfolds, I reimagine it the way I'd rather have seen it happen.Memory doesn't dictate truth. — Martha McPhee

Upon the subject of education, not presuming to dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the most important subject which we as a people can be engaged in. — Abraham Lincoln

The tendency when you dictate is to overwrite, because you're not counting pages, you don't really know what the hell the page count is. — Rod Serling

I heard him and could well imagine what he had been like in those business meetings, the career that had made him rich and arrogant. He was a man who was used to being heard, after all. He couldn't bear it that in some way I had the power to dictate his future, that I had somehow become Mother again. It — Jojo Moyes

You're not alone, and you never have been. I might not be here anymore, but you have people who care about you. Don't allow your past to dictate your future. And always remember that I love you. — Tamsyn Bester

Want to play hangman? asks Theophile, and I ache to tell him that I have enough on my plate playing quadriplegic. But my communication system disqualifies repartee: the keenest rapier grows dull and falls flat when it takes several minutes to thrust it home. By the time you strike, even you no longer understand what had seemed so witty before you started to dictate it, letter by letter. So the rule is to avoid impulsive sallies. It deprives conversation of its sparkle, all those gems you bat back and forth like a ball-and I count this forced lack of humor one of the great drawbacks of my condition. — Jean-Dominique Bauby

I'm at peace with myself. The main thing is not letting people dictate what I do or what I am. — Magic Johnson

One cannot dictate an aphorism to a typist. It would take too long. — Karl Kraus

I am my own secretary; I dictate, I compose, I copy all myself. — Venerable Bede

That opinion that personal holiness is unnecessary to final glorification is in direct opposition to every dictate of reason; to every declaration of Scripture. — Augustus Toplady

that every man must have a code, an ethos, a set of convictions that dictate his purpose and behavior in life. This code "forms the box" in which he lives and moves and makes decisions. — Daniel A. Biddle

Our Lord never dictated to His Father, and we are not here to dictate to God; we are here to submit to His will so that He may work through us what He wants. When we realise this, He will make us broken bread and poured-out wine to feed and nourish others. — Oswald Chambers

Characters are incredibly important, but I tend to build them around the plot during the outline stage. However, once I'm writing the manuscript, the characters I'm writing dictate how the plot unfolds. — Aimee Carter

You have the choice of deliberately directing your thinking, or allowing other forces to dictate your desires and attitudes. — Grant Von Harrison

Pursue what you love, what you are passionate about. Don't let somebody else dictate your life's path. — Jack Nicklaus

Rather than concede to the state of Missouri for one single instant the right to dictate to my government in any matter however unimportant, I would see you, and you, and you, and you, and every man, woman and child in the state, dead and buried. This means war. — Nathaniel Lyon

We have no right to dictate, through irresponsible action or narrow-mindedness, the future of our children, and our children's children. There has been enough destruction, enough death, enough waste. — Abdallah II

You have to be able to grow and move with the organism that is the music industry. You need to maintain flexibility. Ownership of your own stuff is key and then you're able to dictate on a present-terms basis what would be the most effective way to protect yourself and what you've created. You also don't want to lock yourself into a situation where a major label owns part of your touring and merchandise. — Eddie Vedder

My days are kind of controlled by my projects, so sometimes they're album covers. Sometimes they're commission portrait shoots. Sometimes they are editorial, so it kind of - I don't dictate it. — Carol Friedman

When you begin to realize that your past does not necessarily dictate the outcome of your future, then you can release the hurt. It is impossible to inhale new air until you exhale the old. — T.D. Jakes

teachers think they get to dictate what you think about. It's not enough if you just sit there quietly and let them teach. It's like they think they have a right to control your mind. — Becky Albertalli

Don't be a leader to dictate, but be a person whom everyone wants to emulate and follow. — Debasish Mridha

I've never understood the need people have to dictate morality to other people. I really don't know what it is. I don't know if it's fear or the belief that they know the only right way. Or maybe they see a lot of social ills and social decline, and they really think they have the elixir for it. — Stephen Chbosky

Well, the difference in working with the Supremes and the other girl groups like Martha and the Vandellas, and the Marvelettes, you let the material dictate to you, uh, really, how you worked with the group, and with the talent, and the personalities. All of these things was instrumental in having all of the groups, uh, retain their own identity. Uh, and, and the material had a lot to do with it, you know. — Cholly Atkins

Man doesn't dictate what you do or how you do it. If you believe in God, believe in God; have your faith in him. That's where my faith lies. — Ray Lewis

If we were living in ancient Rome or Greece, I would be considered sickly and unattractive. The times dictate that thin is better for some strange reason, which I think is foolish. — Gwyneth Paltrow

I didn't know shorthand either. This meant I couldn't get a good job after college. My mother kept telling me nobody wanted a plain English major. But an English major who knew shorthand would be something else again. Everybody would want her. She would be in demand among all the up-and-coming young men and she would transcribe letter after thrilling letter. The trouble was, I hated the idea of serving men in any way. I wanted to dictate my own thrilling letters. — Sylvia Plath

Their origin is commonly unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has ceased, and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is in vain to conjecture; for what reason did not dictate, reason cannot explain. — Samuel Johnson

Success is a very dangerous thing and I think we have to be very careful about when we dictate what success is for somebody else. Because you don't know what it's like. — Lupe Fiasco

I could never get bored talking about him, he was my favourite player. I loved watching him because he did everything you'd want to see in a footballer. He could dictate the pace of a game; he could take it by the scruff of the neck and control it; he could score decisive goals; he could make the killer pass; he could switch the play, open teams up, slow the game down, quicken it up; whatever was needed. He would take the ball anywhere on the pitch He was such a selfless footballer, too Scholesy was the man, all right. — Rio Ferdinand

In science, address the few, in literature the many. In science, the few must dictate opinion to the many; in literature, the many, sooner or later, force their judgement on the few. — Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

I refuze (refuse) to allow society to dictate my limitations. — Tony Kates

We are all affected by our pasts, but it is within our power not to let what we have done to dictate what we will do. — Kristin Cast

Don't let the worst people you know dictate your behavior. — Gail Simone

I just...Leave a note. Or tell me next time.'
'Would you have let me go if I had?'
'I do not LET you do anything.' He tilted my face up, Mor and Azriel looking away. 'You are your own person, you make your own choices. But we are mates-- I am yours, and you are mine. We do not let each other do things, as if we dictate the movements of each other. But...I might have insisted I go with you More for my own mental well-being, just to know you were safe. — Sarah J. Maas

As long as the enemy is not defeated, he may defeat me; then I shall be no longer my own master; he will dictate the law to me as I did to him. — Carl Von Clausewitz

The face of love is variable. I am able to love without demanding that my relationships assume the structures and forms I might choose for them. My love is fluid, flexible, committed, creative. My love allows people and events to unfold as they need. My love is not controlling. It does not dictate or demand. My love allows those I love the freedom to assume the forms most true to them. I release all those I love from my preconceptions of their path. I allow them the dignity of self-definition while I offer them a constant love that is every variable in shape. — Julia Cameron

Where you are born should not dictate your potential as a human being. — Romeo Dallaire

This new enemy seeks to destroy our freedom and impose its views. We value life; the terrorists ruthlessly destroy it. We value education; the terrorists do not believe women should be educated or should have health care, or should leave their homes. We value the right to speak our minds; for the terrorists, free expression can be grounds for execution. We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice of religion; our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how to worship even to their fellow Muslims. — George W. Bush

If any difference should be made by law between husband and wife, reason, justice and humanity, if their voices were heard, would dictate that it should be in her favor. — Ernestine Rose

Never allow your current circumstances dictate your level of happiness! Remember that this too shall pass! Rejoice always! — Mignon' Talise Padilla

The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her; but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes. — C. JoyBell C.

Have you had a chance to talk with your colleagues?
Talk? We don't talk. They dictate. I tell them to fuck off. — Larissa Ione

The village atheist has the right to be heard; he has no right to be heeded. While he has a right not to have his own children indoctrinated in what he believes are false and foolish teachings, he has no right to dictate what other children may be taught. — Pat Buchanan

I read the letter once, put it aside, and read it again; I pick up a file but am really only reading your letter; I am with the typist, to whom I am supposed to dictate, and again your letter slowly slides through my fingers and I have begun to draw it out of my pocket when people ask me something and I know perfectly well I should not be thinking of your letter now, yet that thought is all that occurs to me - but after all that I am as hungry as before, as restless as before, and once again the door starts swinging merrily, as though the man with the letter were about to appear again. That is what you call the "little pleasure" your letters give me. — Franz Kafka

My faith helps me understand that circumstances don't dictate my happiness, my inner peace. — Denzel Washington

Do not allow consumerism to dictate your spiritual practice. You need nothing more than your focused attention to gain enlightenment. — Gary Hopkins

So this is what you do when it all slows down and the minutes that tick by feel a little longer than before. You take your time. You breathe slowly. You open your eyes a little wider and look at everything. Take it all in. Rehash stories of old, remember people, times, and occasions gone by. Allow everything you see to remind you of something. Talk about those things. Find out the answers you didn't know to yesterday's crosswords. Slow down. Stop trying to do everything now, now, now. Hold up the people behind you for all you care, feel them kicking at your heels but maintain your pace. Don't let anybody else dictate your speed. — Cecelia Ahern

Life can dictate that we suffer physical restrictions and limitations, but no one has the ability to restrict or in any way demean our spirit unless we agree to it. — Sonia Choquette

Words have a magical power. They can bring either the greatest happiness or deepest despair; they can transfer knowledge from teacher to student; words enable the orator to sway his audience and dictate its decisions. Words are capable of arousing the strongest emotions and prompting all men's actions. — Sigmund Freud

Gen. de Gaulle is only concerned about history, and no jury can dictate the judgment of history. Georges Pompidou — Mark Kurlansky

Scientific theories never dictate human values, but they can often cast new light on ethical issues. From a sexual selection viewpoint, moral philosophy and political theory have mostly been attempts to shift male human sexual competitiveness from physical violence to the peaceful accumulation of wealth and status. The rights to life, liberty, and property are cultural inventions that function, in part, to keep males from killing and stealing from one another while they compete to attract sexual partners. — Geoffrey Miller

Human beings, regenerate or unregenerate, have neither the right nor the competence to dictate to a sovereign God how He is to be worshipped. — Joseph C. Morecraft III

As there are none so weak that we may venture to injure them with impunity, so there are none so low that they may not at some time be able to repay an obligation. Therefore, what benevolence would dictate, prudence would confirm. — Charles Caleb Colton

Give me a lead of 14-0 at halftime and I will dictate the final score. — Frank Leahy

While you pretend to read with rapture the canon of your law in Nature, you want something quite the contrary, you extraordinary stage-players and self-deluders! In your pride you wish to dictate your morals and ideals to Nature, to Nature herself, and to incorporate them therein; you insist that it shall be Nature "according to the Stoa," and would like everything to be made after your own image, as a vast, eternal glorification and generalism of Stoicism! — Friedrich Nietzsche

Healthy-striving self-talk: "I want this for me. I want to feel better and be healthier. The scale doesn't dictate if I'm loved and accepted. If I believe that I'm worthy of love and respect now, I will invite courage, compassion, and connection into my life. I want to figure this out for me. I can do this. — Brene Brown

The Best Love that you can give is to love yourself, in spite of your mistakes, in spite of your failures and in spite of your shortcomings. We are who we are, all we have to be is the best we are and rise from that point. Nobody can dictate who you are supposed to be, unless you give them that power. Embrace who you are and embrace those who love you "AS IS" Sharlene R. Prince, The Royalty Mindset Coach — Sharlene R. Prince

As meditation deepens, compulsions, cravings, and fits of emotions begin to lose their power to dictate our behavior. We see clearly that choices are possible: we can say yes, or we can say no.
... "All we are is the result of what we have thought." By changing our mode of thinking, we can remake ourselves completely. — Eknath Easwaran

A king must protect his people from outsiders, from invaders, and lead his people to defend themselves - a king must be the first to thrust himself between the land and all danger, just as a farmer stands to defend his fields from any robber. But it is not his duty to dictate to them what their innermost hearts may do. — Marion Zimmer Bradley

As a major contemporary composer, Madonna should not let the eye dictate to the ear. — Camille Paglia

If, two people have good minds and they're looking at problems, if they agree all the time it means one of them is not thinking. If they disagree all the time, it means one of them is not thinking. They're just allowing their political position to dictate their position on an issue. And I think that's unhealthy. And the public knows better. — William J. Clinton

Art reflects society. Cinema doesn't dictate - you portray what the society demands. — Sonam Kapoor

I think this is a moment where Donald Trump recognized the Republican establishment was much weaker, the party leaders were much weaker than they thought they were in terms of being able to dictate any outcomes. — Ben Domenech

The two most potent post-war orthodoxies
socialist politics and modernist art
have at least one feature in common: they are bothforms of snobbery, the anti-bourgeois snobbery of people convinced of their right to dictate to the common man in the name of the common man. — Roger Scruton

Between 1870 and 1905 Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) tried repeatedly, and at long intervals, to write (or dictate) his autobiography, always shelving the manuscript before he had made much progress. By 1905 he had accumulated some thirty or forty of these false starts - manuscripts that were essentially experiments, drafts of episodes and chapters; many of these have survived in the Mark Twain Papers and two other libraries. To some of these manuscripts he went so far as to assign chapter numbers that placed them early or late in a narrative which he never filled in, let alone completed. None dealt with more than brief snatches of his life story. — Mark Twain

Faith is important to me. It's important to millions of Australians. It helps to shape who I am. It helps to shape my values. But it must never, never dictate my politics. — Tony Abbott

Popularity, next to virtue and wisdom, ought to be aimed at; for it is the dictate of wisdom, and is necessary to the practice of virtue inmost. — John Adams

If the minority, and a small one too, is suffered to dictate to the majority, after measures have undergone the most solemn discussions by the representatives of the people, and their will through this medium is enacted into a law, there can be no security for life, liberty, or property; nor, if the laws are not to govern, can any man know how to conduct himself in safety. — George Washington

Let us ask ... how things work at the level of on-going subjugation, at the level of those continuous and uninterrupted processes which subject our bodies, govern our gestures, dictate our behaviors, etc ... we should try to discover how it is that subjects are gradually, progressively, really and materially constituted through a multiplicity of organisms, forces, energies, materials, desires, thoughts, etc. We should try to grasp subjection in its material instance as a constitution of subjects. — Michel Foucault

I started writing when I was 5 years old. I would dictate stories to my mother, and she would copy them in a scrapbook. If she changed anything to make it, in her opinion, better, I would throw a tantrum. — Tom Robbins

It's a shame when other people's gambling habits change the meaning of paintings or when fluctuations of value start to dictate how people perceive art because it's too expensive to be interesting or moving. That's when I get bummed out. — Nate Lowman

Since the beginning of Humanities every era has had an elitist group that attempted to dictate what is and is not acceptable forms of art. As time has moved on, what is considered the "peasant" class or the lower echelons of society have overwhelmingly gone against the elitist point of view. Without that continuous evolution art would not be where it is today ... enjoyed by the masses. — Tracy L. Darity

I have never allowed a gentleman to dictate to me, or to interfere with anything I do. — Henry James

Should five slaves dictate to a king? If five baboons bark, must the black-maned lion tremble? — Wilbur Smith

I'm not for pretending that bad stuff doesn't exist, and a passion for justice and truth is a libertarian trait. But the idea of liberty should also reveal new forms of beauty in the world, astonishing evidence of order without dictate, lovely examples of innovation without planning, and other magical things. Surely these deserve some attention too. — Jeffrey Tucker

There are few so free from vanity as not to dictate to those who will hear their instructions with a visible sense of their own beneficence. — Samuel Johnson

It is the dictate of history to bring to the fore the kind of leaders who seize the moment, who cohere the wishes and aspirations of the oppressed. Such was Steve Biko, a fitting product of his time; a proud representative of the re-awakening of a people. — Nelson Mandela

Liberals want the government to get bigger, and they want you to drive smaller cars, and they want to dictate the way you live. — Rush Limbaugh

After I had my kids, I realized it's pretty much all about instinct - you have to do what's right for you. Everyone has an opinion, but it was all about what you do or don't do. I was so overloaded, so I let my children dictate the way things were supposed to go, and things fell into place. — Tori Spelling

What you do doesn't define you. You can't let your failures, or your success for that matter, dictate how you view yourself. You are loved. — Taylor York

We cannot have that relationship if we only dictate or threaten and condemn those who disagree. — Zbigniew Brzezinski

I have no fear; I have nothing to lose. I'd rather burn out than fade away, and I would rather go out in a blaze of glory on my own terms than let anybody dictate anything to me in my career. I had the chance to wrestle The Undertaker [on Smackdown in 2013], and one thing I took away from it was that he looked me in the eye and said, 'Trust your instincts because you've got great instincts.' — Dean Ambrose

While it was nice to have someone like you around, a person's pattern shouldn't dictate who you welcomed into your life, or at your lunch table. — C.C. Hunter

The past is a rich resource on which we can draw in order to make decisions for the future, but it does not dictate our choices. We should look back at the past and select what is good, and leave behind what is bad. — Nelson Mandela

Obama's got a health care logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook ... Adolf Hitler, like Barack Obama, also ruled by dictate. — Rush Limbaugh

I realize that people won't even download the entire album and might just download a song or two and put it in a playlist for a workout or in the background while people do dishes. That's fine and I can't dictate how people listen to my music, but I structure records the way I listen to records. — Mikal Cronin

First, stop making formula films that people have already started rejecting.

This year, several big budget films haven't been entertained by the audience.Still stars continue to dictate terms.

The youth wants new good content.

From htcafe
Saturday,Dec.20,2014 — Anurag Kashyap

Any relationship that developed power dynamics, where she thought she had the right to dictate someone else's behavior or have him dictate hers, was ended almost immediately. She could not stand the thought of hands on her that presumed she belonged to them. — Thomm Quackenbush

at the end of the market for spouses, men and women do not necessarily marry the type of person their initial preferences dictate: they marry the person who is both available and willing to be married to them. — Marina Adshade

I think models have a lot less power than they did in the '80s, when there were, like, only 10 supermodels who could dictate the rules, whereas now there's so many, and that changes the power dynamic and makes it a more insecure business. — Lily Cole

When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God's throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people. — Oswald Chambers

Your past doesn't dictate what your future will be. — Jillian Bullock

To disparage the dictate of reason is equivalent to contemning the command of God. — Thomas Aquinas

When I look at the Republicans, I am tempted to dismiss them as the Treason Party. Seriously, were a band of traitors to concoct a series of positions deliberately designed to weaken America, they would be hard pressed to beat the current GOP dogma - hobble education, starve the government by slashing taxes to the rich, kneecap attempts to jumpstart the economy by fixating on debt, invite corporations to dominate political discourse, balkanize the population by demonizing minorities and immigrants and let favored religions dictate social policy. — Neil Steinberg

I often think of a quote from entrepreneur Jim Rohn: 'You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.' Surround yourself with people who are doing interesting things, who are thinking interesting thoughts, who challenge you to be better, and who come from a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. That, combined with appropriate moments of 'me' time, provides the perfect breeding ground for great ideas. And whatever you do, don't get hung up on what competitors are doing. Be aware of what's going on in the industry, but don't let it dictate your own creative process. — Alexis Ohanian

What if I couldn't handle people's opinions of me? I know that shouldn't dictate a person's degree of peace or happiness in life, but the problem is, I chose a business saturated in judgment. — Chris Evans

I think I have some ideas on coaching, but listen, coaches work harder than players. The hours they put in, the headaches that they have. That's the one thing I've never liked about coaching. They have all the emotion, passion and preparation without actually getting to be able to dictate what happens. — Tim Howard

The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared "pictures of the future" that foster genuine commitment and enrollment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, leaders learn the counterproductiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt. — Peter M. Senge

We're in our own world, and we're in the world that has been given us outside, and the problem is to achieve3 a harmonious relationship between the two. I come into this society, so I've got to live in terms of this society. It's ridiculous not to live in terms of this society because, unless I do, I'm not living. But I mustn't allow this society to dictate to me how I should live. One has to build up one's own system that may violate the expectations of the society, and sometimes society doesn't accept that. But the task of life is to live within the field provided by the society that is really supporting you. — Joseph Campbell