David Seabury Quotes

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

Although every man believes that his decisions and resolutions involve the most multifarious factors, in reality they are mere oscillation between flight and longing.

The first step in persuasion is to entice your target to imagine doing the thing you want them to do.

It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good.

I'm really interested in people's decisions.

Would you persuade, speak of interest, not of reason.

I'm probably more persuasive than the next person if I want to be, but do I want to be? In my head, I just don't go there.

I think people don't want to be persuaded. And people don't even like to do the persuading.

If what the philosophers say be true, that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain, so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.

There is always a gap between intention and action.

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Everyone had a reason for everything they did, even if that reason was sometimes stupidity.

Men are so made that they can resist sound argument, and yet yield to a glance.

I'm curious about what makes people do things that they do, unless it's absolutely terrifying to me.

Action often precedes the feeling.

People don’t pay much attention to anything unless you give them reason to

Logic can convince but only emotion can motivate.

I didn't realise how important stupid people are in your life, because you ask yourself, what made stupid people so stupid? What made them the way they are?

There is always one way to make anybody do anything - the trouble is to find it.

People will do odd things if you give them money.

Fear guides more than gratitude.

There are four types: the cretin, the imbecile, the stupid and the mad. Normality is a balanced mixture of all four.

Mere animals couldn’t possibly manage to act like this. You need to be a human being to be really stupid.

What people commonly call Fate is, as a general rule, nothing but their own stupid and foolish conduct.

Never appeal to a man's 'better nature.' He may not have one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.