John P. Kotter Quotes

Logic can convince but only emotion can motivate.

People will not lend you a hand until you first touch their hearts.

The only possible way to get somebody to change is to reach into their hearts.

People are persuaded by reason, but moved by emotion; [the leader] must both persuade them and move them.

The heart of change is in the emotions.

Tap into people's emotions. We've all been put to sleep by a speaker who just gives the facts. You must tap into people's feelings.

The people only understand what they can feel; the only orators that can affect them are those who move them.

When you want to move somebody, you have to say to yourself: 'I'm in the emotional transportation business. I gotta move them, emotionally.'

Movies that encourage empathy are more effective than those that objectify problems.

Our emotions resonate with each other - for better and for worse.

A buddy of mine is doing a documentary on decisions, and they're not based on a ton of logic. It's mostly how you relate to them emotionally.

To me, it's important to try and make an emotional connection with the audience.

Emotional information is very, very rich in influence. You're giving somebody something to connect with, to see themselves in.

I'm an emotional person. I chose films based on emotions.

It might sound goofy, but I do believe that emotions have power. We're all driven by something, and most of that is emotional reaction.

When your fear touches someone’s pain, it becomes pity, when your love touches someone’s pain, it become compassion.

Smooth your way to the head through the heart. The way of reason is a good one: but it is commonly something longer, and perhapsnot so sure.

You were born with the power to change others. You change people by the way you treat them. That is what changes the human heart.

When you know a person particularly well, you cannot escape their ruffled feelings.

What does the brain matter compared with the heart?

When the heart is won, the understanding is easily convinced.

All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. Emotion is really what fiction is all about. That's not to say fiction can't be thoughtful, or present some interesting or provocative ideas to make us think. But if you want to present an intellectual argument, nonfiction is a better tool. You can drive a nail with a shoe but a hammer is a better tool for that. But fiction is about emotional resonance, about making us feel things on a primal and visceral level.

Reason works better when emotions are present; the person sees sharper and more accurately when his emotions are engaged.

Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.

I know that I've had a very fortunate life, but also I think my job as an actor is to connect emotionally to human beings.