Quotes About Persuasion

If men uphold reason, they will be led, ultimately, to conclude that men should deal with one another as free agents, settling their disputes by an appeal to the mind, i.e., by a process of voluntary, rational persuasion. If men reject reason, they will be led, ultimately, to conclude the opposite: that men have no way to deal with one another at all—no way except physical force, wielded by an elite endowed with an allegedly superior, mystic means of cognition.

Observe in this connection that the Nazis, correctly, regarded the power of propaganda as an indispensable tool.

A few more Rules may fitly be given here, for correspondence that has unfortunately become controversial . One is, don't repeat yourself . When once you have said your say, fully and clearly, on a certain point, and have failed to convince your friend, drop that subject : to repeat your arguments, all over again, will simply lead to his doing the same; and so you will go on, like a Circulating Decimal. Did you ever know a Circulating Decimal come to an end?

You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it.

Cómo se inventa uno una religión? —preguntó Evie. Will la miró por encima de los cristales de sus gafas. —Dices 'Dios me ha dicho lo siguiente', y luego esperas a que la gente se apunte.

Stories were power. And whoever controlled the story controlled everything. A story could bring people together, or it could tear them apart. It could spread like a sickness, infecting people. It could lead them into battle or shake them into seeing what they had refused to see before.

Careful there, Poet. I might start to believe you.

Well, are you going to motivate people to bring peace to war-torn nations, or are you going to motivate people to join a cult and drink the Kool-Aid?

You don't have to disprove someone's claim if you can discredit the person saying it.

If I were you," she countered, "I'd get the major's weddin' ring on my finger, and his baby in my belly, and I'd forget this whole stupid idea of homesteadin'!" Insulted

A few pages in Mein Kampf are indeed worth reading, the pages, I mean, that relate to the orator and to the difference between the orator and the writer.

Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent.

The engine of ancient society was religion but the engine of contemporary society, as I see it, is advertising.

Society is secretly driven by sales

The best way to rise in society is to use all possible means of persuading people that one has already risen in society.

Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.

The way to change others' minds is with affection, and not anger.

Sadness of any sort is also seductive, particularly if it seems deep-rooted, even spiritual, rather than needy or pathetic—it makes people come to you.

I am not that afraid to lose believers, I am afraid not to win the unbelievers.

True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.

Conviction is a good motive, but a bad judge.

To obtain an assured favorable response from people, it is better to offer them something for their stomachs instead of their brains.

Random quotes don't constitute an argument.

The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray.