Quotes About Persuasion

Our truth of nowadays is not what is, but what others can be convinced of; just as we call "money" not only that which is legal, but also any counterfeit that will pass.

Almost all the opinions we have are taken on authority and on credit.

Truth was a tool. It should never simply be said. No, it had to be bent, twisted, colored, until it became a weapon.

It's much better to have your arguments dismissed because you might be joking than to have your arguments dismissed because you're not telling the truth.

I come from a culture that embodies the need to convert others to "the truth." The Mormon Church has one of the largest missionary programs in the world. That does not interest me.

I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.

Debating is not an honest intellectual exercise. It's like a trial in which the goal is not to get to the truth but to win.

In public speaking, we must appeal either to the prejudices of others, or to the love of truth and justice. If we think merely of displaying our own ability, we shall ruin every cause we undertake.

Selling a new lie is easy, but not so with un-teaching an old truth.

It is a difficult task Oh citizens to make speeches to the belly which has no ears.

Pure truth cannot be assimilated by the crowd it must be communicated by contagion.

Tell them a lie big enough, they'll worship you as a sage. Tell them a truth big enough and they'll mock you.

Repeat a lie a hundred times and it becomes an ideal.

If you want your lie to be believed then you need to speak thousand truths before you lie.

There was no better way to sell a lie, she knew, than to sprinkle it with truth.

Ruby knew then that a lie could only control a person if they believed it.

The most elegant speeches may sway the hearts and minds of men, but not one ever stopped a bullet.

People notice only what you tell them to notice," he said. "And then only if you remind them.

The law was not about truth. It was about negotiation, amelioration, manipulation.

Lean in, invade that foot and a half that is all theirs, their own space. Lean back when you get what you want. It's subliminal. Most of what goes on in a police interrogation has nothing to do with what is said.

In a courtroom I can sell ice to Eskimos

Yet I have discovered that if all those around you believe some particular thing, you will soon be tempted to share in that belief...

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 ... Who knows what use they'll make of you? Maybe you'll help them to persuade people to buy things they don't need, or hate things they know nothing about, or hold beliefs that make them easy to handle, or doubt the truths that might save them.

The human world is full of weak-minded people, who think they're as clever as can be and are convinced that it's terribly important to persuade even the children that Fanstastica doesn't exist.