Quotes About Persuasion

The best lawyers are those who can win without arguing

Passion, rather than logic, often drove public discourse.

culture is not neutral in relation to power but a form of power.

As Talleyrand memorably said, 'The truth is whatever is plausibly asserted and confidently maintained.' If I tell you something three times you will believe it, said the Bellman, and usually we do.

You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.

Every time you have to speak, you are auditioning for leadership.

If you don't believe in the messenger, you won't believe the message.

Persuasion psychology expert Robert Cialdini

as tools of persuasion. He would

This means that a particular burden falls on property owners. Since the laws protecting their property will be effective only when they are able to persuade others to obey those laws, they must introduce a theatricality into their ownership sufficiently engaging that their opponents will live by its script.

The more effective policy for a society is to find ways of persuading its thieves to abandon their role as competitors for property for the sake of becoming audience to the theater of wealth. It is for this reason that societies fall back on the skill of those poietai who can theatricalize the property relations, and indeed, all the inner structures of each society.

One of the most effective means of self-persuasion available to a citizenry is the bestowal of property. Who actually owns a society's property, and how it is distributed, are far less important than the fact that property exists at all.

When machinery functions perfectly it ceases to be there-but so do we. Radios and films allow us to be where we are not and not be where we are. Moreover, machinery is veiling. It is a way of hiding our inaction from ourselves under what appear to be actions of great effectiveness. We persuade ourselves that, comfortably seated behind the wheels of our autos, shielded from every unpleasant change of weather, and raising or lowering our foot an inch or two, we have actually traveled somewhere.

This means that a peculiar burden falls on property owners. Since the laws protecting their property will be effective only when they are able to persuade others to obey those laws, they must introduce a theatricality into their ownership sufficiently engaging that their opponents will live by its script.

What is written is more influential than what is said.

Those who believe without reason cannot be convinced by reason.

Great designers seldom make great advertising men, because they get overcome by the beauty of the picture - and forget that merchandise must be sold.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

It wasn't so much that my mother always had to have her own way; it was more that if you disagreed with her, the rhetorical power this unleashed would shock you into seeing things from her point of view. The minute she sensed resistance, all of her intellect would be summoned into an irresistible arrowhead of purpose, and the most sensible strategic approach was therefore never to disagree with her too forcefully.

You can fool too many people, too much of the time.

Lincoln understood that the greatest challenge for a leader in a democratic society is to educate public opinion.

A true leader is a man who can get people to work together on the points on which they agree and who can persuade others that when they disagree there are peaceful methods to settle their differences.

persuaded editors and publishers at a dozen leading

What convinces is conviction," Johnson liked to say. "You simply have to believe in the argument you are advancing." In this instance, Johnson spoke directly from the heart.