William Safire Quotes

At the end of reasons comes persuasion.

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.

To me, presentations are the most powerful device. You can't really name a movement that didn't start with the spoken word.

Rhetoric, which is the use of language to inform or persuade, is very important in shaping public opinion. We are very easily fooled by language and how it is used by others.

All writing is a form of manipulation, of course, but you realize that a plain sentence can actually do so much.

Rhetoric is the art of ruling the minds of men.

Words are potent weapons for all causes, good or bad.

Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.

Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast.

Power comes through public persuasion.

Language is a weapon of politicians, but language is a weapon in much of human affairs.

Persuasiveness takes finesse; it takes an understanding of human psychology. And intention is everything.

Persuasion is not a science but an art

You can't make the people do what you want them to do. You've got to get everybody to see what you seein' or you gonna be a damn fool.

There is no need for propaganda to be rich in intellectual content.

Throughout human history, our greatest leaders and thinkers have used the power of words to transform our emotions, to enlist us in their causes, and to shape the course of destiny. Words can not only create emotions, they create actions. And from our actions flow the results of our lives.

I'm manipulating the audience. I'm making sure people sympathize.

A word after a word after a word is power.

The great leaders have always stage-managed their effects.

Selling is essentially a transfer of feelings.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

What I'd really like to control is not machines, but people.

I'm a bit of a propagandist.

I think the power of persuasion would be the greatest superpower of all time.

The Internet has made it much more effective and cheaper to spread propaganda.