Quotes About Persuasion

How fortunate for leaders that men do not think (also, What luck for rulers that men do not think).

An orator is a good man who is skilled in speaking.

Arguments, like men, are often pretenders.

See how he throws his baited lines about,/And plays his men as anglers play their trout.

Reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired

Let any man speak long enough, he will get believers.

You can persuade a man to believe almost anything provided he is clever enough, but it is much more difficult to persuade someone less clever.

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

In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person; in actual life, men not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man who has convinced them.

It was useless to try to corner a man who told stories. It was like trying to drink all the water in a lake to get at a bright pebble on the bottom of it.

Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.

Persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should be adopted to influence the conduct of men. The opposite course would be a reversal of human nature, which is God's decree and can never be reversed.

In order to win a man to your cause, you must first reach his heart, the great high road to his reason.

There is a contagion in example which few men have sufficient force of mind to resist.

But facts always convince, and another man's opinion rarely convinces.

If you take a man by surprise, and behave with sufficient arrogance, he will generally do what you ask. -Emerson

Man can be stimulated by hope or driven by fear, but the hope and the fear must be vivid and immediate if they are to be effective without producing weariness.

Tell a man something is bad, and he's not at all sure he wants to give it up. Describe it as stupid, and he knows it's the better part of caution to listen.

Had Calhoun been advised by me, he would have been the most popular man in the United States.

Actors are con men and con men are actors.

It is easy to convince a man who already thinks as you do.

Give a wise man an honest brief to plead and his eloquence is no remarkable achievement.

When a wise man chooses a sane basis for his arguments, it is no great task to speak well.

Dogma is the convictions of one man imposed authoritatively upon others.