The duty of rhetoric is to deal with such matters as we deliberate upon without arts or systems to guide us, in the hearing of persons who cannot take in at a glance a complicated argument or follow a long chain of reasoning.
AristotlePeople’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.
Will RogersIn oratory the will must predominate.
David HareI’m pretty calculating. I take stuff that I know appeals to people’s bad sides and match it up with stuff that appeals to their good sides.
Kanye WestNothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.
Marcus Tullius CiceroNot brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.
Thomas CarlyleVoters quickly forget what a man says.
Richard M. NixonReacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.
Ruth Bader GinsburgNo amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.
Albert EinsteinPersuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.
AristotleThere are people who are really good managers, people who can manage a big organization, and then there are people who are very analytic or focused on strategy. Those two types don’t usually tend to be in the same person. I would put myself much more in the latter camp.
Mark ZuckerbergArguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Oscar WildePropaganda is amazing. People can be led to believe anything.
Alice WalkerIt takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.
Thomas JeffersonThose convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.
Dale CarnegieTruthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.
Lao TzuIf you can’t convince them, confuse them.
Harry S. TrumanWhat convinces is conviction. Believe in the argument you’re advancing. If you don’t you’re as good as dead. The other person will sense that something isn’t there, and no chain of reasoning, no matter how logical or elegant or brilliant, will win your case for you.
Lyndon B. JohnsonSeveral excuses are always less convincing than one.
Aldous HuxleyThe best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.
Napoleon HillIt is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.
Nelson MandelaIf you do not wish a man to do a thing, you had better get him to talk about it; for the more men talk, the more likely they are to do nothing else.
Thomas CarlyleMost negotiators are trying to get their way.
Stephen CoveyYou can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.
George W. BushOne of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people’s minds.
Frank ZappaPeople are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.
Blaise PascalMy most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.
Winston ChurchillRhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of persuasion. This is not a function of any other art.
AristotleSwearing is industry language. For as long as we’re alive it’s not going to change. You’ve got to be boisterous to get results.
Gordon RamsayThe answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes and more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom for the individual American to earn a rightful place in his own community – and for States and localities to address their own needs in their own ways, in the light of their own priorities.
Richard M. NixonMen are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.
Albert CamusCharm is a way of getting the answer ‚Yes‘ without asking a clear question.
Albert CamusThe great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
John F. KennedyThaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.
Henry David ThoreauPeople are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.
Blaise PascalIn making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.
AristotleI don’t believe it. Prove it to me and I still won’t believe it.
Douglas AdamsWhen our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘
Brian EnoI am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.
George WashingtonReviews condition people. At the end of the day, a lot of human minds are malleable. They can be easily shaped with strong words.
DrakeYou can only have one aim per debate.
Christopher HitchensOrators are most vehement when their cause is weak.
Marcus Tullius CiceroCharacter may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.
AristotleIf you want to influence people, you want them to accept your suggestions, you don’t say, ‚You don’t know how to use the English language,‘ or ‚How could you make that argument?‘ It will be welcomed much more if you have a gentle touch than if you are aggressive.
Ruth Bader GinsburgThere is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.
Dale CarnegieOne has to secrete a jelly in which to slip quotations down people’s throats – and one always secretes too much jelly.
Virginia WoolfWhy is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?
Bertrand RussellGod gave you a brain. Do the best you can with it. And you don’t have to be Einstein, but Einstein was mentally tough. He believed what he believed. And he worked out things. And he argued with people who disagreed with him. But I’m sure he didn’t call everybody jerks.
Clint EastwoodIf you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.
Henry David ThoreauI told you I’m not going to criticize my successor. I’ll just tell you that there are people at Gitmo that will kill American people at a drop of a hat and I don’t believe that persuasion isn’t going to work. Therapy isn’t going to cause terrorists to change their mind.
George W. BushI would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.
Dwight D. EisenhowerPersuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.
AristotleIf you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.
Abraham LincolnIn the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.
John C. Maxwell