Quotes about Persuasion

We are always trying to convert people to a belief in our own explanation of the universe. We think that the more people there are who believe as we do, the more certain it will be that what we believe is the truth. But it doesn't work that way at all.

No one ever converted to Christianity because they lost the argument.

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

All argument is against it; but all belief is for it.

By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result?

A gun is not an argument.

Arguments out of a petty mouth are unanswerable.

There is not only an art, but an eloquence in it.

If you can say a thing with one stroke, unanswerably you have style; if not, you are at best a marchande de plaisir; a decorative litt

Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way. —Daniele Vare, Italian diplomat

If you open a door, however, as Diane Nash did with her persistent questions, you offer the other a way out and all your power can be deployed in persuading them to take it. In short, rather than working to frustrate the other, focus on redirecting their attention to a positive outcome.

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.