Who speaks to the instincts speaks to the deepest in mankind, and finds the readiest response.
To convert somebody go and take them by the hand and guide them.
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.
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.
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.
Not brute force but only persuasion and faith are the kings of this world.
If you would convince others, seem open to conviction yourself.
He makes people pleased with him by making them first pleased with themselves.
Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.
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.
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.
It is nobler to convert souls, than to conquer kingdoms.
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.
That which we do not believe, we cannot adequately say; even though we may repeat the words ever so often.
For your own good is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction.
If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.
Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.
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.
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.
To make converts is the natural ambition of everyone.
Secrecy has many advantages, for when you tell someone the purpose of any object right away, they often think there is nothing to it.
The art of pleasing consists in being pleased.
The real persuaders are our appetites, our fears and above all our vanity. The skillful propagandist stirs and coaches these internal persuaders.
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.
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.
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.
If you wish to win a man over to your ideas, first make him your friend.
The object of oratory alone in not truth, but persuasion.
You have not converted a man because you have silenced him.
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.
People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found out by others.
Before you try to convince anyone else, be sure you are convinced, and if you cannot convince yourself, drop the subject.
The secret is to always let the other man have your way.
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.
More flies are caught with honey than with vinegar.
Those that will not hear must be made to feel.
He that winna be ruled by the rudder maun be ruled by the rock.
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.
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.
Call the bald man, Boy; make the sage thy toy; greet the youth with solemn face; praise the fat man for his grace.
One of the best ways to persuade others is with your ears -- by listening to them.
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.
You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.
The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity.