We must reinforce argument with results.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

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

Most negotiators are trying to get their way.

Men are convinced of your arguments, your sincerity, and the seriousness of your efforts only by your death.

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.

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.

Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak.

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

God 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.

Persuasion 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.

There 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.

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

I 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.

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

The 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.

In 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.

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.

No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong.

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

In the end, people are persuaded not by what we say, but by what they understand.

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

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

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

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

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

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

Swearing 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.

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

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.

Voters quickly forget what a man says.

If you can’t convince them, confuse them.

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.

Several excuses are always less convincing than one.

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

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.

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

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

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.‘

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.

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

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.

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.

What 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.

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

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

You can only have one aim per debate.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.

In oratory the will must predominate.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

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

Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.

One has to secrete a jelly in which to slip quotations down people’s throats – and one always secretes too much jelly.