Markus Wolf Quotes

If you think that by threatening me you can get me to do what you want... well, that's where you're right. But - and I am only saying this because I care - there's a lot of decaffeinated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.

Telling a man to go to hell and making him go are two different propositions.

You can only beat a guy down so far before he has a tendency to start listening to what you're saying.

Force is legitimate where gentleness avails not.

You know, you can't make the people do what you want them to do.

When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat.

Unless you’re prepared to use force, it’s very difficult to deal with a person who understands only force.

There’s no reason to respect anyone’s word in that part of the world. The only thing they respect is force and the threat of force.

Deals, flattery, threats and promises are part of the process, certainly; do not flinch from any opportunity to scheme and plot, however sordid and demeaning it may appear.

You can't try to keep someone against their will, or it's difficult to get them to listen or have the right mentality.

Children use all their wiles to get their way with adults. Adults do the same with children.

I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr Hitchcock. He was so insistent and obsessive, but I was an extremely strong young woman, and there was no way he was going to get the better of me.

President Obama thinks he can use emotion to bring pressure on Congress. But that's not how adults with power respond to things.

You can get more with a kind word and a gun than you can get with just a kind word.

If you were to come to Minnesota, I could have you locked up like that. That's power.

I don't believe in strong-arming people.

The difference between rape and seduction is salesmanship.

It is one thing to persuade, another to command …

If you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

There are only two means by which men can deal with one another: guns or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know that they cannot win by means of logic, have always resorted to guns.

In domestic politics, presidents rarely wield independent power; what they wield is influence. Power is the capacity to make people do what you want them to do; influence is the ability to make them want what you want, at least temporarily.

It's tough to negotiate from a position of weakness.

I do not deal with threats and ultimatums.

You can't push and force people to do what they don't want to do.

If you tell me, I will leave you alone," I said. "And if you don't tell me, I am going to grab the nearest ghostwritten James Patterson romance novel and I am going to follow you through this store reading it out loud until you relent. Would you prefer me to read from Daphne's Three Tender Months with Harold or Cindy and John's House of Everlasting Love? I guarantee, your sanity and your indie street cred won't last a chapter. And they are very, very short chapters." Now I could see the fright beneath the defiance.