"Each underestimates her own power and overestimates the other's."

Power

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Power as articulated by Deborah Tannen. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Power provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Deborah Tannen

Deborah Frances Tannen is an American author and professor of linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Best known as the author of You Just Don't Understand, she has been a McGraw Distinguished Lecturer at Princeton University and was a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences following a term in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

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More by Deborah Tannen

"Relationships are made of talk - and talk is for girls and women."

— Deborah Tannen
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"The biggest mistake is believing there is one right way to listen, to talk, to have a conversation - or a relationship."

— Deborah Tannen
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"Communication is a continual balancing act, juggling the conflicting needs for intimacy and independence. To survive in the world, we have to act in concert with others, but to survive as ourselves, rather than simply as cogs in a wheel, we have to act alone."

— Deborah Tannen
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More about Power

"The worst pain a man can suffer: to have insight into much and power over nothing."

— Herodotus
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"I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere."

— Noam Chomsky
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"As a restaurateur, my job is to basically control the chaos and the drama. There's always going to be chaos in the restaurant business."

— Rocco DiSpirito
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"I've pretty much accepted the fact that you're going to meet ignorant people, and that's okay. You can't control that. You can't change that."

— Hasan M. Elahi
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