Convincing Quotes

• At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.

  Frederick Douglass

  Irony, Argument, Needed

  What to the Slave is the 4th of July?, delivered 4 July 1852

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• Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.

  Will Rogers

  Funny, Smile, Money

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• I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.

  Muhammad Ali

  Greatness, Accomplish Nothing, Marketing

  Twitter post from Mar 28, 2010

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• To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair inevitable.

  Raymond Williams

  Despair, Inevitable, Radical

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

  John Henry Patterson

  Trying, Persuasion, Convince

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• Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?

  Jane Austen

  Funny, Inspiring, Wisdom

  Jane Austen (2005). “Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1”, p.53, Shoes & Ships & Sealing Wax

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• The Christianity which is shared is the Christianity which is convincing.

  Bill Vaughan

  Christianity

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• Gradually, at various points in our childhoods, we discover different forms of conviction. There's the rock-hard certainty of personal experience ("I put my finger in the fire and it hurt,"), which is probably the earliest kind we learn. Then there's the logically convincing, which we probably come to first through maths, in the context of Pythagoras's theorem or something similar, and which, if we first encounter it at exactly the right moment, bursts on our minds like sunrise with the whole universe playing a great chord of C Major.

  Philip Pullman

  Hurt, Math, Science

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• These repetitive words and phrases are merely methods of convincing the subconscious mind.

  Claude M. Bristol

  Mind, Phrases, Affirmation

  Dr. Robert C. Worstell, Dorothea Brande, Claude M. Bristol, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill (2017). “Mindset StackingTM Inspirational Journal VolumeSS01”, p.126, Lulu.com

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• We convince by our presence.

  Walt Whitman

  Inspirational, Life, Time

  Walt Whitman (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Walt Whitman (Illustrated)”, p.323, Delphi Classics

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• When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do.

  William Blake

  Trust, Courage, Truth

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• Pride is the switch that turns off priesthood power. Humility is a switch that turns it on . . . . Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don't discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman.

  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

  Attitude, Mean, Humility

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• My diminished girth, in tailor phraseology, was hardly conceivable even by my own friends, or my respected medical adviser, until I put on my former clothing, over what I now wear, which is a thoroughly convincing proof of the remarkable change.

  William Banting

  Tailors, Medical, Proof

  William Banting (2005). “Letter on Corpulence”, p.52, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I had a hell of a time convincing people I was gay - which was so annoying!

  Portia de Rossi

  Gay, People, Annoying

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• But at the same time, the commonplace statement about them is true: every character is the hero of his own story. Each has a justification for his actions that is convincing to him. It's fun to give these people voices.

  Thomas Perry

  Fun, Hero, Character

  Interview with Ann Bruns, www.bookreporter.com. January 17, 2003.

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• Disappointment over nationalistic authoritarian regimes may have contributed to the fact that today religion offers a new and subjectively more convincing language for old political orientations.

  Jurgen Habermas

  Disappointment, Political, May

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• Unless we repeal the illegal Byrd amendment, American exports will be vulnerable to retaliation, and the U.S. will continue to face a difficult task convincing other countries to make their laws comply with international rules.

  Jim Ramstad

  Country, Law, Faces

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• But after a few minutes of convincing myself that I really wanted to go - telling myself that I love skating and that my coach is there waiting for me - I would get up and go. And my mother would always get up and eat breakfast with me!

  Nancy Kerrigan

  Sports, Mother, Waiting

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• That is what leadership is all about: staking your ground ahead of where opinion is and convincing people, not simply following the popular opinion of the moment.

  Doris Kearns Goodwin

  Leadership, People, Opinion

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• After 1980, you never heard reference to space again. Surface, the most convincing evidence of the descent into materialism, became the focus of design. Space disappeared.

  Arthur Erickson

  Convincing Evidence, Space, Focus

  Speech to McGill University School of Architecture, www.arthurerickson.com. October 21, 2000.

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• I had never even thought I'd be an actress - I was supposed to be a lawyer. But the motivation is the same: when you act, you defend a role; you have to be convincing. It's the same career.

  Anne Parillaud

  Motivation, Careers, Roles

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• I never failed to convince an audience that the best thing they could do was to go away.

  Thomas Love Peacock

  Work, Going Away, Audience

  Thomas Love Peacock (1856). “Maid Marian, and Crotchet Castle”, p.222

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• Nothing truly convincing - which would possess thoroughness, vigor, and skill - has been written against the ancients as yet; especially not against their poetry.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Skills, Vigor, Literature

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• Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau's example.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Trout, Example, Milk

  Arthur Conan Doyle (2007). “The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (Non-slipcased Edition) (Vol. 1) (The Annotated Books)”, p.305, W. W. Norton & Company

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• A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

  Max Planck

  Death, Truth, Growing Up

  Scientific Autobiography, and Other Papers "Scientific Autobiography" (1948) (translation by Frank Gaynor)

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