Persuasive – Quotes

Money is far more

Money is far more persuasive than logical arguments. Euripides

The project of organizing a democratic political movement entails the hope that one’s ideas and beliefs are not merely idiosyncratic but speak to vital human needs, interests and desires, and therefore will be persuasive to many and ultimately most people. But this is a very different matter from deciding to put forward only those ideas … Read more

The Silly Putty-like malleability

The Silly Putty-like malleability of the institution [marriage], in fact, is the only reason we still have the thing at all. Very few people… would accept marriage on it’s thirteenth-century terms. Marriage survives, in other words, precisely because it evolves. (Though I suppose this would not be a very persuasive argument to those who probably … Read more

Our criminal justice system

Our criminal justice system is fallible. We know it, even though we don’t like to admit it. It is fallible despite the best efforts of most within it to do justice. And this fallibility is, at the end of the day, the most compelling, persuasive, and winning argument against a death penalty. Eliot Spitzer

The strength of a

The strength of a theory is not what it allows, but what it prohibits; if you can invent an equally persuasive explanation for any outcome, you have zero knowledge. Eliezer Yudkowsky

We can be dramatic,

We can be dramatic, even theatrical; we can be persuasive; but the message we are telling must be true. Edwin Land

Radicals are not going

Radicals are not going to disappear. They’re going to go underground. They’re going to be hardened. And they’re not going to be exposed to contrary ideas made by educated people who can make real, convincing, and persuasive arguments to deradicalise these people. Edward Snowden

To be persuasive we

To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be truthful. Edward R. Murrow

American traditions and the

American traditions and the American ethic require us to be truthful, but the most important reason is that truth is the best propaganda and lies are the worst. To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful. It is as simple as that. … Read more

Power is the most

Power is the most persuasive rhetoric. Friedrich Schiller