The church doesn’t have a social strategy, the church is a social strategy.
I'd rather just stay quiet and play the game. Winning is hard enough as it is.
Keep your friends close - and your rivals even closer.
You'll never catch a man if you let him think you are too smart.
Though it is a great mistake to make friends of the wicked and foolish, it is unwise to make enemies of them, for they are very numerous.
I've already started saying that I'm 30 when I'm still 29. That way, I'm already there.
A great social success is a pretty girl who plays her cards as carefully as if she were plain.
Just following 'Survivor' over the years, sometimes if an individual is not a threat and he doesn't rub anybody the wrong way and he can get into an alliance, he can hang out there for a while.
The most creative social strategy we have to offer is the church. Here we show the world a manner of life the world can never achieve through social coercion or governmental action. We serve the world by showing it something that it is not, namely, a place where God is forming a family out of strangers.
Accepting blame when it's not really due sometimes makes the point better.
I like to take a long time over breakfast, and I can't bear to talk. If a guest is a breakfast talker it's very important to invite another so they can talk to each other. Otherwise they spoil the newspaper reading and everything else.
Humour is the most engaging cowardice. With it myself I have been able to hold some of my enemy in play far out of gunshot.
Always come to a conversation armed with two drinks. Then if it's dire you can pretend you were on the way to find someone else. And if it's interesting, you can stay and down both glasses without moving.
Isn’t it obvious, Sage? No, of course it isn’t. I did it so I’d have a reason to be around you — one I knew you couldn’t refuse.
It is of great consequences to disguise your inclination, and to play the hypocrite well.
I'm learning to use others' weaknesses. I don't hammer a man's soft spot constantly, because he may strengthen it. I just save it as a trump up my sleeve for moments when I really need a point.
That's because I've learned how to use it [smile], Woserit said. I don't pass it out like an old woman giving free milk to the village cats. It's something that must be controlled, and for you especially. You use it on anyone. You must learn to be more judicious.
Actually, most people don't think I have too much sense because I would rather be fairly intelligent and act dumb instead of not having any sense at all and try to act smart.
Black people shouldn't have permanent friends or enemies: they should have permanent interest.
Gossip is certainly one of the things that language is useful for, because it's always handy to know who needs a favor, who can offer a favor, who's available, who's under the protection of a jealous spouse. And being the first to get a piece of gossip is like engaging in insider trading: You can capitalize on an opportunity before anyone else can.
My father had taught me to be nice first, because you can always be mean later, but once you've been mean to someone, they won't believe the nice anymore. So be nice, be nice, until it's time to stop being nice, then destroy them.
The best time to make friends is before you need them.
If you would stand well with a great mind, leave him with a favorable impression of yourself; if with a little mind, leave him with a favorable impression of himself.
I'm one of those people who laughs everything off. If I mess up, I just say, 'Ha! Totally didn't mean to do that.'
I've been taught always be nice to the lighting people - they're the people you make friends with straight away so that's what I do.
