Al Leiter Quotes

A good test of a relationship is how a person responds to the word 'no.' Love respects 'no,' control does not.

I don't work with people who ask me questions.

Rules help govern and steer a relationship along, so they're good things. But they become bad things when they become the narrow gate though which the relationship must always pass. When this happens, the rules become the basis for the relationship and, in a sense, become a substitute for the relationship.

There are guys you give the benefit of the doubt if they hold you up a little bit longer than normal, and you have that list of guys you kind of know are going to be a problem when you get there. The window of being patient with them is a lot shorter.

When I see my staff take a step back because I've lost my cool about something food-related, I say never apologise for your standards. If someone doesn't meet them, then you should explain that and that you want it changed. I want my staff to be like that, too.

He that communicates his secret to another makes himself that other's slave.

You can't have a relationship with a device whose limits are unknown to you, because without limits, it keeps becoming something else.

Maxim for life: You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you.

It's just like any relationship, the more contained the environment, the more the good stuff appears and the more the bad stuff will reveal itself.

Our children are counting on us to provide two things: consistency and structure. Children need parents who say what they mean, mean what they say, and do what they say they are going to do.

I tend to be a person who starts with the presumption that I should trust you until you abuse the privilege, and then our relationship is forever changed. That's a very big line, and chances are it's not going to work if it's crossed. I warn people that this is how I'm going to deal with it.

Teachability and trust always leads to total obedience.

I mean, I love being with friends and I love kissing and loving someone to pieces. But it's hard to find someone who doesn't ultimately start judging you and your choices.

To be honest, the fact that people trust you gives you a lot of power over people. Having another person's trust is more powerful than all other management techniques put together.

I remember I had a fight with my friend when I touched a boy for the first time and I didn't tell her. She got mad with me, not because I didn't tell her but because I'd done it in the first place.

It's very different than it use to be. I think everybody has a lot more experience in how to be in a relationship - whether it's a marriage or a significant other or a business or a friend.

People try constantly to use me, and I hate it.

You kind of restructure your whole personality to be in a healthy relationship.

You have to protect it too, you can't let just any stupid person take it and do something demoralizing with it. At the same time, I don't believe in being so rigid about controlling what happens either.

It's so hard to have relationships when there is so much scrutiny.

I always tell my kids that as soon as you have a secret, something about you that you are ashamed to have others find out, you have given other people the power to hurt you by exposing you.

I'm fairly in tune with what's private with my husband and with me.

You have to be up-front from the very beginning about what your expectations of the other person are, and you can't make any promises you don't intend to keep.

If you want to keep the relationships you have, it's best not to talk about them.

Relationships can be very traumatic. But being in a healthy relationship can be very empowering.