Mortmain is an old French word that should be tattooed on the inside of any historical novelist's skull. This wonderful and terrible word means “dead hand.” Its definition is: “The influence of the past regarded as controlling the present.” (It is also used as a legal term with the same basic meaning.
Our minds are susceptible to the influence of external voices telling us what we require to be satisfied, voices that may drown out the faint sounds emitted by our souls and distract us from the careful, arduous task of accurately naming our priorities.
There was a widespread indignation in the American media. They were saying, 'How can you make a movie during an election that's about politics? What are you doing? Are you trying to influence people's lives?' To which my response was, 'Well, I hope so.'
Dub has been a big influence in terms of production. It's inspired so many people and so much music - in terms of music where mixing desk was the instrument. Central to that is the echo chamber, and I think there's a little bit of a romantic thing there.
“The leader seeks to communicate his vision to his followers. He captures their attention with his optimistic intuition of possible solutions to their needs. He influences them by the dynamism of his faith. He demonstrates confidence that the challenge can be met, the need resolved, the crisis overcome.”
“What an incredible, incredible man. I'm indebted to him for many years of friendship. I grew up four doors away from the man and I've known him since I was four- years-old. He had a big influence on my life.”
“Politicians need religion even more than a hermit in retreat. If a hermit acts out of bad motivation, he harms no one but himself. But if someone who can directly influence the whole of society acts with bad motivation, then a great number of people will be adversely affected.”
“[But a meeting with Bishop Robinson would exasperate conservative evangelicals and primates from the developing world who see the bishop as a satanic influence. His consecration in November 2003 was described by the conservative American Anglican Council as a] grievous day ... The devil has entered our church.”
“[The price gain] is entirely psychological. Nothing has been done. Saddam Hussein advocated the use of Arab oil exports as an instrument to influence the Arab/Israeli situation, but he himself is not in a position to do anything about this, and there's no indication that other Arabs will go along with this.”
“This is to help raise money for the kids. Our students don't know if they may need St. Jude one day or when it would hit close to home. Someone from our community is using St. Jude now, so hopefully this will be a big influence on the kids.”