Quotes About Persuasion

Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it.

If you heard 40 times in a day that Newt Gingrich takes the wings off of butterflies, eventually you'd believe it.

In every debate, whatever the format, whatever the questions, there is one and only one way to identify the winner: Who commands the room? Who drives the narrative? Who is in charge?

After about 15 minutes, you feel that you're winning them over.

Public health depends on winning over hearts and minds. It's not enough to just have a good policy, you have to convince people to actually follow it.

When people look and decide they have nothing in common with me - I'm 43, balding, blond, whatever - there's something absolutely invigorating about winning them over. Even if it's eight people from Sweden who don't understand what I'm talking about.

I don't want to be a Michael Moore-style artist, which is not to disparage Michael Moore. But he seems rather unsuccessful at winning people over who don't already agree with him.

He who frames the question wins the debate.

Censoriously asserting one's moral superiority and treating skeptics as imbeciles and deplorables wins few converts.

Time and time again in history, it's the emotional argument that wins. Probably since 70,000 BC we've been making decisions in a similar way.

Let me tell you something... If you're anybody - not just me, but anybody - and you can put an oven that doesn't work at all on eBay and sign your name on it and sell it for 1200 bucks, and somebody will drive from Seattle to Dallas, Texas, to get it, that's pretty cool.

Persuasion is often more effectual than force.

Some musical directors have more chutzpah. They pick up the phone and talk people into giving. I prefer to call and say 'thank you' after the money has been contributed.

When it comes to controlling human beings, there is no better instrument than lies. Because you see, humans live by beliefs. And beliefs can be manipulated. The power to manipulate beliefs is the only thing that counts.

You can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You've got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don't feel it, nothing will happen.

There is that definition of leadership that says, 'Leadership is convincing people to do things that they otherwise wouldn't have done because you've made them believe it's the right thing to do.' And a great speech can do that.

Sheer flattery got me into the theater. Flattery always works with me, particularly the flattery of women.

The easiest way to propagandize people is to let a propaganda theme go in through an entertainment picture when people do not realize they are being propagandized.

We're so surrounded by so much of this marketing and just being told on a regular basis that you have to like this, you will go here, you want this. I found that to me that fit perfectly into what a theme park of dinosaur would be about.

How do you take a medium seriously when it is so laced with high decibel reminders to run right out to your supermarket, your drug store, your friendly car dealer, your favorite department store and buy.... That's the twentieth century marching song — buy!

If you want someone to listen and understand your reasoning, give your interests and reasoning first and your conclusions or proposals later.

Increase your negotiation power is by improving your walk-away alternative. An attractive BATNA is a strong argument with which to persuade the other side of the need to offer more.

Like it or not, you are a negotiator.

J.S. Bach almost persuades me to be a Christian.