Presenting a humble façade gains trust; flattery appeals to ego; combine the two to gain an ego-based trust within someone, and you will find in your hands a judgement clouding tool second only to love.

She ventured to hope he did not always read only poetry; and to say, that she thought it was the misfortune of poetry, to be seldom safely enjoyed by those who enjoyed it completely; and...

Well, that depends, I suppose. I heard someone once say that men dance the same way they have sex. So, if you want everyone here to think you’re the kind of guy who just sits...

The Andrians were the first of the islanders to refuse Themistocles’ demand for money. He had put it to them that they would be unable to avoid paying, because the Athenians had the support of...

Shigure: JUST LISTEN TO ME FOR A SECOND, KYO!Kyo: SHUT UP! I HATE THIS! DO YOU REALLY GET THAT MUCH ENJOYMENT FROM PLAYING WITH PEOPLES’ LIVES?!Shigure: Well, yes, now that you mention it, I do–BUT...

The key is to put your outrage in a place where you can get it when you need to, but not have it bubble up so much, especially when you’re asked to explain new ideas...

No conflict no story

A ruler must learn to persuade and not to compel… he must lay the best coffee hearth to attract the finest men… a good ruler has to learn his world’s language… it’s different for every...

It doesn’t really matter if you are left behind the back, but what matters is your capacity to pull and push everyone by your way to get to the front.

All things are possible; if something seems like it’s not, it’s only because enough people aren’t being deceived into the possibilities yet.

No one can withstand the charm of such a mystery.

Its all about perspective, that is how you look at things. Your own thoughts and outlook defines whether an experience, event, situation whatever is good or bad. And your definition determines your response.

It’s just that you are practiced at persuading, and sometimes it’s quite difficult, sir to distinguish being persuaded by you from being knocked down in street and stamped on.Pg.406

Lucy gripped her chilled glass of orange and raspberry juice. When Rebecca talked about Austen, she’d mostly mentioned Mr. Darcy or Mr. Knightley. She hadn’t really thought of the doe-eyed, pale-skinned heroines. On the screen,...

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

It’s true what they say, that words are the true weapons. Those who fight with steel are limited to the strength of their arm, the reach of their blade, and the timing of their strike;...

To inquire and to learn is the function of the mind, By learning I do not mean the mere cultivation of memory or the accumulation of knowledge, but the capacity to think clearly and sanely...

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

It is safe to assume that any individual or group you wish to influence has access to more wisdom than they currently use. It is also safe to assume that they also have considerably more...

my idea of good company.. is the company of clever, well-informed people. who have a great deal of conversation.

Its all about perception, that is how you look at. Your own thoughts and outlook defines whether it is good or bad. And your definition determines your response.

Robbed of a rapt audience, advertisers know that influencing how you spend what to do while depends on having some control over how you spend the resources in your head.

She had been in situations like this, where people said, Convince me, and in none of those had they actually wanted to be convinced. She could lay down a perfect argument and they just invented...

I discovered that night (in his college’s student politics) that an audience has a feel to it, and, in the parlance of the theater, that audience and I were together.

We stay the same as we’ve always been, keeping to the path we’ve walked our whole lives. Paths that carry so much importance and perceived stability that we are utterly convinced it is the only...

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...

Nothing is so unbelievable that oratory cannot make it acceptable.

It’s amazing, the lies you can tell yourself. Even more amazing, the lies you can believe when you’re desperate enough.

I never saw quite so wretched an example of what a sea-faring life can do: but to a degree, I know it is the same with them all; they are all knocked about, and exposed...

I thought you might be more willing to help if you experienced my desperation in person.

In any profession, you will be respected if you are good at your job – not because you are good at talking about your beliefs. It may be quite irrational, but the fact is that,...

Good words were the difference between Emily eating well and not. And what she had found worked best were not facts or arguments but words that tickled people’s brains for some reason, that just amused...

The key for any speaker is to establish his own point of view for the audience, so they can see the game through his eyes.

The values most important to us are always the most easily exploitable.

Woe betide him, and her too, when it comes to things of consequence, when they are placed in circumstances requiring fortitude and strength of mind, if she have not resolution enough to resist idle interference...

I would like to see anyone, prophet, king or God, convince a thousand cats to do the same thing at the same time.

Even if you persuade me, you won’t persuade me.

The only thing more difficult than persuading someone else to start having sex with you is persuading yourself to stop.

But some of it (evangelistic persuasion) is going to come through service. The deficit that many Christians face is that people look at followers of Christ more for what they’re against than what they’re for.

In a battle of believability, the winner is the one with the best body language, not the clearest logic.

‘You can’t stop me. Your word voodoo, it doesn’t work on me. Right? So how do you think you’re going to-‘ Eliot produced a pistol. He didn’t seem to pull it from anywhere. He just...

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

[Everything you write is] not simply a collection of words, but a means of influence not to be taken lightly. Let your recipient’s emotions be the gondola, and your words, its gondolier.

What! Would I be turned back from doing a thing that I had determined to do, and that I knew to be right, by the airs and interference of such a person, or any person...

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.

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.

The Jefferson style – cultivate his elders, make himself pleasant to his contemporaries, and used his pen and his intellect to shape the debate – arm him well for the national arena.

In intertwining sentimentality, healing, narcissism, and authority, modern evangelicals give authority to those emotions themselves…The sentimental becomes evidence and authority in a world in which most evangelicals have given up intellectual pursuits and concerns over...

How could he encapsulate in a pithy admissions-interview line all of his unique ideas and interests?

The key to Lincoln’s famous employment of humor is not that he failed to appreciate the tragic aspects of human existence, but rather that he felt these with such keeness that some relief was required.