Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

Arguments are to be avoided: they are always vulgar and often convincing.

If you don’t like what someone has to say, argue with them.

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.

Theology is unnecessary.

Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.

Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.

I 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.

You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.

Rhetoric 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.

The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.

My mother was Catholic, my father was Protestant. There was always a debate going on at home – I think in those days we called them arguments – about who was right and who was wrong.

Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it. Martyrdom is the test.

The most savage controversies are about matters as to which there is no good evidence either way.

Reacting in anger or annoyance will not advance one’s ability to persuade.

If 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.

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

There is still much debate about whether torture has been effective in eliciting information – the assumption being, apparently, that if it is effective, then it may be justified.

Is man one of God’s blunders? Or is God one of man’s blunders?

Charm is a way of getting the answer ‚Yes‘ without asking a clear question.

Nothing is more dangerous to one’s own faith than the work of an apologist. No doctrine of that faith seems to me so spectral, so unreal as one that I have just successfully defended in a public debate.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice.

Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.

Religion is not going to come up with any new arguments.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

We must reinforce argument with results.

I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction.

Those convinced against their will are of the same opinion still.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

I’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.

Propaganda is amazing. People can be led to believe anything.

People’s minds are changed through observation and not through argument.

Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.

There is only one way… to get anybody to do anything. And that is by making the other person want to do it.

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

I don’t believe it. Prove it to me and I still won’t believe it.

Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

One 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.

Facts are not liberals‘ strong suit. Rhetoric is.

You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

Right now, when we’re hearing so much disturbing and hateful rhetoric, it is so important to remember that our diversity has been – and will always be – our greatest source of strength and pride here in the United States.

My most brilliant achievement was my ability to be able to persuade my wife to marry me.

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

You can only have one aim per debate.

When 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.‘

If you can’t answer a man’s arguments, all is not lost; you can still call him vile names.

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?

Reviews condition people. At the end of the day, a lot of human minds are malleable. They can be easily shaped with strong words.

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.

Freedom has cost too much blood and agony to be relinquished at the cheap price of rhetoric.

No matter how you cut it, this real debate on personal accounts is about the legitimacy of Social Security; it’s not about the solvency of Social Security.

It may happen sometimes that a long debate becomes the cause of a longer friendship. Commonly, those who dispute with one another at last agree.

If 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.

Politics is a science. You can demonstrate that you are right and that others are wrong.

What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy?