Quotes about persuasion

Who speaks to the instincts speaks to the deepest in mankind, and finds the readiest response.

— Amos Bronson Alcott

To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.

— St. Thomas Aquinas

Remember that what pulls the strings is the force hidden within; there lies the power to persuade, there the life -- there, if one must speak out, the real man.

— Marcus Aurelius

The truth isn't the truth until people believe you, and they can't believe you if they don't know what your saying, and they can't know what you've saying if they don't listen to you, and they won't listen to you if you're not interesting, and you won't be interesting until you say things imaginatively, originally, freshly.

— William Bernbach

Let one who wants to move and convince others, first be convinced and moved themselves. If a person speaks with genuine earnestness the thoughts, the emotion and the actual condition of their own heart, others will listen because we all are knit together by the tie of sympathy.

— Thomas Carlyle

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

— Thomas Carlyle

If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.

— Lord Chesterfield

He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.

— Lord Chesterfield

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

— Marcus T. Cicero

He who wants to persuade should put his trust not in the right argument, but in the right word. The power of sound has always been greater than the power of sense.

— Joseph Conrad

Roughly speaking, any man with energy and enthusiasm ought to be able to bring at least a dozen others round to his opinion in the course of a year no matter how absurd that opinion might be. We see every day in politics, in business, in social life, large masses of people brought to embrace the most revolutionary ideas, sometimes within a few days. It is all a question of getting hold of them in the right way and working on their weak points.

— Aleister Crowley

It is nobler to convert souls, than to conquer kingdoms.

— Louis Debonnaire

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.

— Dwight D. Eisenhower

That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

For your own good is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction.

— Janet Frame

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.

— Benjamin Franklin

Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.

— Benjamin Franklin

Oral delivery aims at persuasion and making the listener believe they are converted. Few persons are capable of being convinced; the majority allow themselves to be persuaded.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

People have a peculiar pleasure in making converts, that is, in causing others to enjoy what they enjoy, thus finding their own likeness represented and reflected back to them.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.

— William Hazlitt

The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.

— Eric Hoffer

The persuasion of a friend is a strong thing.

— Homer

Why harass with eternal purposes a mind to weak to grasp them?

— Horace

As there is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it, so reasonable arguments, challenges to magnanimity, and appeals to sympathy or justice, are folly when we are dealing with human crocodiles and boa-constrictors.

— William James

If I have said something to hurt a man once, I shall not get the better of this by saying many things to please him.

— Samuel Johnson

There is a holy, mistaken zeal in politics, as well as in religion. By persuading others, we convince ourselves.

— Junius

When a person is determined to believe something, the very absurdity of the doctrine confirms them in their faith.

— Junius

You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.

— Abraham Lincoln

If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend.

— Abraham Lincoln

The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.

— Thomas B. Macaulay

You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.

— John Morely

I don't know the rules of grammar. If you're trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me you should use their language.

— David Ogilvy

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

— Blaise Pascal

Before you try to convince anyone else, be sure you are convinced, and if you cannot convince yourself, drop the subject.

— John H. Patterson

The secret is to always let the other man have your way.

— Claiborne Pell

Persuasion is better than force.

— Proverb

That which proves too much, proves nothing!

— Proverb

When a heart is on fire, sparks always fly out of the mouth.

— Proverb

If you can't get people to listen to you any other way, tell them it's confidential.

— Proverb

The tongue can paint what the eye can't see.

— Chinese Proverb

More flies are caught with honey than with vinegar.

— French Proverb

Those that will not hear must be made to feel.

— German Proverb

He that winna be ruled by the rudder maun be ruled by the rock.

— Scottish Proverb

You must make the product interesting not just make the ad different. And that's what too many of the copywriters in America today don't yet understand.

— Rooser Reeves

The young mind is pliable and imitates, but in more advanced states grows rigid and must be warmed and softened before it will receive a deep impression.

— Joshua Renolds

Call the bald man, Boy; make the sage thy toy; greet the youth with solemn face; praise the fat man for his grace.

— Helen Rowland

One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears - by listening to them.

— Dean Rusk

Hence to fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.

— Sun Tzu

Whenever he met a great man he groveled before him, and my-lorded him as only a free-born Briton can do.

— William M. Thackeray

You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.

— James Thurber

The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.

— Zig Ziglar

Propaganda is persuasion by illusion.

— Kayla McCarthy

Life is a play, and if your a good actor and can convince the people of your role than the role is truly yours in reality.

— Tousignant Maximillian Guy