Quotes About Persuasion

Belief is not a voluntary thing. A man believes or disbelieves in spite of himself.

Every married person he knew seemed desperate to chivvy others into matrimony, no matter how poor an advertisement they themselves were for the institution.

People liked to talk; there were very few exceptions, the question was how you made them do it. Some were amenable to alcohol; others liked a spotlight; and then there were those who merely needed proximity to another conscious human being. A subsection of humanity would become loquacious only on one favorite subject; it might be their own innocence, or somebody else's guilt.

I believe you could bewitch anyone—if you set yourself to do it. Henrik Ibsen, Rosmersholm

Her antipathy towards Strike seemed to have evaporated. He was not surprised; he had met the phenomenon many times. People liked to talk; there were very few exceptions; the question was how you made them do it. Some, and Ursula was evidently one of them, were amenable to alcohol; others liked a spotlight; and then there were those who merely needed proximity to another conscious human being.

The psychological fact of suggestion is that if statements are made again and again in a confident manner, without argument or proof, then their hearers will tend to believe them quite independently of their soundness and of the presence or absence of evidence for their truth.

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument

And people would believe it, thought Hartmann, because people believed what they wanted to believe – that was Goebbels's great insight. They no longer had any need to bother themselves with inconvenient truths. He had given them an excuse not to think.

Better yet, combine your warmth and flattery with requests that they do a small favor or two FOR YOU. This strategy is akin to what author David McRaney calls "the Benjamin Franklin effect," which is based on experiments that show we come to like people that we do nice things for and to dislike people that we treat unkindly.

Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. – Romans 4:20–21 NIV

Sentir la necesidad de convencer a los demás de que uno tiene razón es algo que procede de la religión. Yo simplemente me contento con saber que tengo razón, aunque los demás no lo sepan.

That is fine. Feeling a need to convince others that you are right also is something that comes from religion, I think; I am simply content to know that I am right, even if others do not know it.

when Satan was training three apprentice devils. He asked the first one how he proposed to deceive people. "I will tell them there is no God." "That will never work," Satan replied, "for everyone knows there is a God." The second one volunteered that he would tell people there is no hell. "That won't work, either. Everyone knows there must be a hell." Then the third apprentice devil spoke up. "I will tell them there is no hurry.

It comes out better if one persuades rather than compels. Let me suggest to the reader that the assumptions be examined—both about the making of profit and about undertaking to compel service by law. Is all that we want from profit-making business the lowest price we can exact? In my own efforts to help business to become more serving I feel that I am contending with a popular view that price is all.

On August 2, Germany and Turkey had signed a defensive alliance against Russia. The Turks were reluctant, however, to take the actual step into war and the German embassy in Constantinople was recommending application of pressure on the grand vizier and his Cabinet. The sight of Goeben anchored off the Golden Horn was thought likely to offer formidable persuasion.

People don't ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.

Good words do more than hard speeches, as the sunbeams, without any noise, will make the traveler cast off his cloak, which all the blustering winds could not do, but only make him bind it closer to him.

The easiest thing in the world is to convince yourself that you're right. As one grows old, it is easier still.

It is easier to believe a lie that one has heard a thousand times than to believe a fact that one has never heard before.

While there might be some people who were natural diplomats, she wasn't one of them. She was forever butting heads with people, challenging them when she should have been convincing them, raising hackles where she should have been raising support. She had always been in a hurry, without always knowing where she wanted to go; she was too impatient to wait for the right time or the right confluence of events.

Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today.

Porque los artistas no deben tener sólo ideas que expresar, sino ideas que demostrar. Expresar una idea, en el sentido de presentarla, nunca es suficiente. El público no debe únicamente entender; debe creer.

a convincing impossibility is preferable to an unconvincing possibility.

She laughed at him then, because he sounded like a small boy, not like a very large grown-up Beast with a voice so deep it made the hair on the back of your neck stir when you heard it. 'But vegetables are good for you,' she said, and added caressingly, 'They make you grow up big and strong.' He smiled, showing a great many teeth. 'You see why I wish to eat no more vegetables.