Josh Earnest Quotes

I'm merely trying to give you the sort of argument that would appeal to your intelligence.

If I walk into a room of 500 people, my standard is, if I can't give 400 or 450 of you something, a language or a new way of seeing something, then I have failed. If I get 100 of you, I am a failure. I have to get a majority.

Just in the course of an hour, people didn't need to be persuaded. They just needed to hear, oh my god, there is another plan here which is about the public interest.

The thing that I try to remember is that in the briefing room it's not a debate. I'm not supposed to go in there and win a debate with the press corps. If that's what I try to do, then I'm going to lose.

[M]ere knowledge of the truth will not give you the art of persuasion.

What I wanted to do was give society the information it needed to decide if it wanted to change the system.

A good debater can be a good communicator. You have to communicate when you're president of the United States, and communicate effectively with the American people, and with the world.

I don't know if I approach choice any differently than the sighted people do, but what I am very cognizant of is that choice does have limits and because of that I really try to take advantage of the domains in which I do have choice.

Sometimes get lost in the white noise of people's anger and being super adamant on one side or the other. And what fails to happen is that you actually aren't disseminating the information that you want to get across to these people.

There are certain times when most people are in a disposition of being informed, and 'tis incredible what a vast good a little truth might do, spoken in such seasons.

People love stories and the more you can give information and knowledge and even wisdom through a story, the more likely you are to be heard.

I'm really paying attention. People make up their minds late.

We find rhetorical situations everywhere in life, and only our imaginations can get us out of them.

Leadership is people taking the initiative, carrying things through, having ideas and the imagination to get something started, and exhibiting particular skills in different areas.

I tell people it's like shopping for a car.People are taking candidates out for a test drive, seeing what they like.

I try to give everyone options because no matter what you think you're going to wear, what you actually put on depends totally on how you feel.

Now you have to be a collaborator and you have to bring on governments and convince people.

I, personally, think Trump improved pretty dramatically and certainly changed pretty dramatically over the last hundred days. He's less of the populist. He's more of the corporatist. He's less incompetent. He's trying to at least turn toward people who can put a decision-making process. And he's trying to adjust to the job. And so whatever one thinks of him, he is certainly a learning creature.

What I always say with these things, when you're trying to do comprehensive things like tax reform, there will be 20,000 lobbyists in Washington trying to work their will on that piece of legislation so, you know, people think it's going to be a lot easier than it will end up being.

I try not to speak about all the charities and people I help, because I believe we can only be truly generous when we expect nothing in return.

Study the situation thoroughly, go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible to you and the consequences which can and may follow from each course. Pick out the course which gives the most promise and go ahead.

Decisions are made by people who have time, not people who have talent.

When you are thinking something, you have the feeling that the thoughts do nothing except inform you the way things are and then you choose to do something and you do it. That's what people generally assume. But actually, the way you think determines the way you're going to do things. Then you don't notice a result comes back, or you don't see it as a result of what you've done, or even less do you see it as a result of how you were thinking. Is that clear?

You have to appear wiser and more prudent than is required by the people you are dealing with if you want to give a high opinion of yourself.

I respect the fact that Donald Trump always listens. It's how he was in business. It's how he is as president.