Quotes About Persuasion

Never had a general so effectively willed away the facts.

The absurd body counts and kill ratios were proof of his leadership. He sold them to LBJ, who in turn presented them as fact to the American people.

H]e quoted eloquently from the Bill of Rights, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address, and a section which had been stricken from his party's platform seventy-five years ago. He was not quite clear on what all this had to do with [the present situation], but it was noble and stirring and would bring in a lot of votes.

Why do you think great leaders and great orations are coincident with wars, revolutions, and the founding or ending of governments and states? Common interests then are so clear that speeches are effortlessly drawn, but at present neither the facts nor the consequences are sufficiently clear to make oratory legitimate. This is the kind of war that will wind on and make fools of its partisans and opponents both.

La no violencia, exactamente igual que la violencia, es una forma de persuadir, una técnica para el activismo político, un sistema para prevalecer. La

It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

She doesn't try to have dignity or refinement. She wants to affect men by what she says, not what she doesn't say.

C.S. Lewis is the ideal persuader for the half convinced, for the good man who would like to be a Christian but finds his intellect getting in the way.

Some persons feel drawn towards those who dislike them, or are at least determined to overcome opposition of that sort.

So how can you create a conviction? 1) Start with the basic belief. 2) Reinforce your belief by adding new and more powerful references.

Yet there are still 100 million people invested in actively managed mutual funds. How is that humanly possible? JB: Well, never underestimate the power of marketing.

A woman's weapon is her tongue.

A man who desires to soften another man's heart, should always abuse himself. In softening a woman's heart, he should abuse her.

And I think that when once he had learned the art of arranging his words as he stood upon his legs, and had so mastered his voice as to have obtained the ear of the House, the work of his life was not difficult.

The facts, if not true, were well invented; the arguments, if not logical, were seductive.

Masses of men will almost feel that a certain amount of injustice ought to be inflicted on their betters, so as to make things even, and will persuade themselves that a criminal should be declared to be innocent, because the crime committed has had a tendency to oppress the rich and pull down the mighty from their seats.

There was a significant reminder of the history they all shared: 'It is hoped that a difference in religious persuasion [Catholic as opposed to Protestant] will not shut the hearts of the English Public against their suffering brethren, the Christians of France.

Unjust Discourse: To invoke solely the weaker arguments and yet triumph is a talent worth more than a hundred thousand drachmae.

But even in this perilous situation, the popular leader Cleophon managed to persuade the Athenians to reject the chance of a negotiated peace offered by Sparta after Arginusae, so that it is hardly surprising that the Athenians responded so warmly to the parabasis of Frogs, where the Chorus aptly upbraids them for choosing as leaders and fighters not the best men but the worst, just as they have traded their gold and silver coinage for base metal (686-705, 717-37).

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

It is impossible, or not easy, to alter by argument what has long been absorbed by habit

There are, then, these three means of effecting persuasion. The man who is to be in command of them must, it is clear, be able (1) to reason logically, (2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms, and (3) to understand the emotions-that is, to name them and

Avoid the enthymeme form when you are trying to rouse feeling; for it will either kill the feeling or will itself fall flat: all simultaneous motions tend to cancel each other either completely or partially.