John Henry Patterson Quotes

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

Neither irony or sarcasm is argument.

You've got to get as literal as you can get to convince people sometimes that you can do something.

Good argument is intended to persuade another.

I'm not out to convince anybody of anything.

You cannot 'rationalize' what is not rational to begin with - as if lying were called 'truthization.' There is no way to obtain more truth for a proposition by bribery, flattery, or the most passionate argument - you can make more people believe the proposition, but you cannot make it more true.

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

You will never convince anyone to do anything unless you believe it should be done.

Eloquence, n. The art of orally persuading fools that white is the color that it appears to be. It includes the gift of making any color appear white.

In argument, truth always prevails finally; in politics, falsehood always.

You have convinced me that you are right. Now go out there and force me to do it.

I am bound to furnish my antagonists with arguments, but not with comprehension.

Though we cannot out-vote them we will out-argue them.

We may convince others by our argument; but we can only persuade them by their own.

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

Nothing is so difficult to believe that oratory cannot make it acceptable …

You can't just give a speech and expect people to fall down and agree with you.

I want people to be able to influence themselves. We convince ourselves, and that allows us to convince others.

A person who is not convinced, enthusiastic, certain and in love, will convince nobody.

...nothing in the world is harder than convincing someone of an unfamiliar truth.

At the end of reasons comes persuasion.

Now go back and meet all those people who you think know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything, it's merely a question of believing.

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

A talent for speaking differently, rather than for arguing well is the chief instrument of cultural change.

A man who is furnished with arguments from the mint will convince his antagonist much sooner than one who draws them from reason and philosophy.