Quotes About Persuasion

How does a lawyer lie?" "With passion, Mr. Starbuck, and with a self-inflicted belief, albeit temporary, that the facts he is reciting are the very stuff of God's own truth.

My son smiled. "You taught me well, Father." "What did I teach you?" "That a spear-point in a prisoner's liver is a very persuasive thing.

Children are easily swayed by religion, which is why it is a good thing that most eventually grow into sense.

Folk don't buy rusty iron because I'm persuasive, lord, but because they desperately want to believe it will turn to silver.

L'important n'est pas de convaincre, mais de donner à réfléchir.

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

The objection to propaganda is not only its appeal to unreason, but still more the unfair advantage which it gives to the rich and powerful.

To acquire immunity to eloquence is of the utmost importance to the citizens of a democracy.

Some things are believed because people feel as if they must be true, and in such cases an immense weight of evi­dence is necessary to dispel the belief.

The bulk of the population of every country is persuaded that all marriage customs other than its own are immoral, and that those who combat this view only do so in order to justify their own loose lives.

What really moves people to believe in God is not any intellectual argument at all. Most people believe in God because they have been taught from early infancy to do it, and that is the main reason.

Those who have the habit of controlling powerful mechanisms, and through this control have acquired power over human beings, may be expected to have an imaginative outlook towards their subjects which will be completely different from that of men who depend upon persuasion, however dishonest. Most of us have, at some time, wantonly disturbed an ants' nest, and watched with mild amusement the scurrying confusion that resulted.

There are those who believe that almost any group of men, when once it has seized the machinery of the State, can, by means of propaganda, secure general acquiescence.

If it is the devil that tempts the young to enjoy themselves, is it not the same personage that persuades the old to condemn their enjoyment? And is not condemnation perhaps merely a form of excitement appropriate to old age?

There is no arguing with a mood; it can be changed by some fortunate event, or by a change in our bodily condition, but it cannot be changed by argument.

An individual may be influenced: A. By direct physical power over his body, e.g. when he is imprisoned or killed; B. By rewards and punishments as inducements, e.g. in giving or withholding employment; C. By influence on opinion, i.e. propaganda in its broadest sense. Under this last head I should include the opportunity for creating desired habits in others

There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action. Plato intended his Republic to be founded on a myth which he admitted to be absurd, but he was rightly confident that the populace could be induced to believe it.

first, pure persuasion leading to the conversion of a minority; then force exerted to secure that the rest of the community shall be exposed to the right propaganda; and finally a genuine belief on the part of the great majority, which makes the use of force again unnecessary.

A ruler can be persuaded through patience, and a gentle tongue can break a bone. Proverbs 25:15

I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me until that day. 2 Timothy 1:12

Every conversation does not have to be blatantly spiritual for God to make it positively effectual. Sometimes God gives us favor with people who are touched or impressed with how we express ourselves because God empowered our words even when the listener couldn't distinguish the difference.

This man Paul has persuaded and misled a considerable number of people by saying that gods made by hand are not gods! Acts 19:26

Fear requires belief that you will be harmed, and it is easily manipulated by rhetoric.

If you believe you are right, then you should believe that you can make the case that you're right. This requires you to deal with serious objections properly.