Zadie Smith Quotes

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.

Truthful words are not beautiful; beautiful words are not truthful. Good words are not persuasive; persuasive words are not good.

I think the best promo guys make it sound like it's not a promo.

Personally I've never put much store by honesty- I mean how can you trust a word whose first letter you don't even pronounce

Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self when one does not lack wit and is familiar with all the niceties of language. Language is a prostitute queen who descends and rises to all roles. Disguises herself, arrays herself in fine apparel, hides her head and effaces herself; an advocate who has an answer for everything, who has always foreseen everything, and who assumes a thousand forms in order to be right. The most honorable of men is he who thinks best and acts best, but the most powerful is he who is best able to talk and write

Truth is not so threadbare as speech, because fewer people can make use of it.

Whatever distrust we may have of the sincerity of those who converse with us, we always believe they will tell us more truth than they do to others.

I would not have used the phrase "I'm selling you" because even though that's exactly what you're doing, when you tell people you're doing it - or worse yet, when you tell people "I'm not here to sell you anything," they automatically assume that that's exactly what you are here to do.

There is a truth and beauty in rhetoric; but it oftener serves ill turns than good ones.

Always tell the truth, and people will never believe you.

People want to be inspired. They want to aspire to something. ... You can have the best product, the best service, the best argument in a debate. But without the effective words you still lose. In the end you need good principles and good language if you are to succeed.

There are many justifications of silence; there can be none of insincerity.

Being a language, mathematics may be used not only to inform but also, among other things, to seduce.

You listen to a politician making a speech, and it is like hearing nothing. Whereas, music is unmistakably music. The thing about music is that nobody listens to it unless it's real. I don't think that you can fool anybody for too long in music. And you certainly can't fool everybody.

If people don't want to listen to you, what makes you think they want to hear from your sweater?

Lying is too much trouble. You have to make sure to taste each word before letting it off your tongue. I hate that. It's hard enough making people understand without lying.

If you love people, you take them on trust.

There's an element of trust that you don't find with people nowadays.

Realizing that people should lie when they do makes me a little more open-minded, a little more tolerant, when my child or my partner lies.

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.

I have always had such sincere love for truth, that I have often begun by telling stories for the purpose of getting truth to enter the heads of those who could not appreciate its charms.

Leadership is about making people feel safe. When someone feels heard, they feel safe.

I can't compete with making promises you can't keep.

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.

Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory !!