Chauncey Wright Quotes

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

The facts are on our side.

A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

After people have repeated a phrase a great number of times, they begin to realize it has meaning and may even be true.

Argument is conclusive … but … it does not remove doubt.

A thing that nobody believes cannot be proved too often.

The word of knowledge, strictly employed, implies three things: truth, proof, and conviction.

A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.

I don't have to have faith, I have experience.

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

Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

Ultimately, it is only the witness who convinces people, not the teacher.

Though argument does not create conviction, the lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.

We are pleased with one who instantly assents to our opinions, but we love a proselyte.

Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.

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

Self-confidence carries conviction; it makes other people believe in us.

The opinions and beliefs of men follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds.

No matter how improbable an assertion is, if it is made with enough assurance it has an affect.

People don't believe what you tell them. They rarely believe what you show them. They often believe what their friends tell them. They always believe what they tell themselves.

You can change my mind, but you gotta work harder at it.

It would be awesome to be so impressive that we could sway people to our way of thinking just by declaiming our thoughts, but probably most of us lack such gravitas. Luckily, there's something even better: evidence, logic, and argument.

It was important to me to believe, because if I don't believe, how can I expect them to believe?

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

My dad being a salesman taught me you can sell anybody anything if you've got the ability to believe.