Quotes About Persuasion

The strongest pressure in the world can be friendly pressure.

It's never what you say, but how you make it sound sincere.

You may lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Nothing sways the stupid more than arguments they can't understand.

I feel like I'm a professional storyteller, really. A lot of people say 'a truth teller,' and, if the writing supports it, that's what your aim is: to try and present people with a series of truths, and then they can make up their mind about those and whether they have any real credence or weight.

Meetings are a great trap. Soon you find yourself trying to get agreement and then the people who disagree come to think they have a right to be persuaded. However, they are indispensable when you don't want to do anything.

When a man is trying to sell you something, don't imagine that he is polite all the time.

Some people feel, you make your case, if they listen to you, fine, if they don't, that's it. That's not what leadership is. Leadership is trying to continue to make a case.

I still think what the consumers are looking for is, number one, entertainment. They want to be entertained. It can be a liberal, a libertarian, or a conservative. It can be far-left or far-right. If they are entertained, they are going to tune in.

The devil always has the better tunes!

It turns out we are all quite easily swayed if someone knows what they are doing - which is a great thing and a dangerous thing.

I do remember the moment when, as a child, I realized that the things we call 'TV shows' are really just the stuff that gets put between commercials. Later, I came to see that the kinds of things that get on 'free' TV are shows that help sell products.

When I tweet, I'm mostly preaching to the choir.

'Twelve Angry Men' was done with an intermission, and I took that out. I really wanted an audience to feel like they had no break, just like those jurors, and you're not going to get out of that room until you come to a decision.

The kind of power I want is the power to persuade. But I do not want the power to tell other people what to do.

The State is not force alone. It depends upon the credulity of man quite as much as upon his docility. Its aim is not merely to make him obey, but also to make him want to obey.

It's a lot easier to think of an app and write it than it is to convince people to want it.

I see myself as a person who wants to serve the constituents within my district and find a way to move those who are not in our position philosophically to our position.

The more advertising I see, the less I want to buy.

Politics, like advertising, is about people selling you things you didn't really want or need.

Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong use to make others conform to what they want.

Leadership is getting people to do things that they don't want to do.

The longer they keep you waiting, the more they want to deal.

I always talk about my ambition with music, and it's to sort of seduce people into listening to sounds they wouldn't normally listen to or want to hear.