Influence Tactics Quotes

He who can lead you to believe an absurdity can lead you to commit an atrocity.

Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you've got.

Nobody is strong-minded around a President…

China's propaganda approach with the West is different than the one used by the Soviet Union, which used Western belligerence to maintain its control over its domestic audience. China's strategy is one of influence and inertia.

The power of propaganda is to say something enough times that it becomes the Big Lie.

The Orator persuades and carries all with him, he knows not how; the Rhetorician can prove that he ought to have persuaded and carried all with him.

You can't control people. You must understand them. You have to know where they're coming from, their beliefs and values, what turns them off, what they're against.

People with leverage have dominance over people with less leverage. In other words, just as humans gained advantages over animals by creating leveraged tools, similarly, humans who use these tools of leverage have more power over humans that do not. Saying it more simply, 'leverage is power'.

A master salesman is one who takes the offensive and never the defensive sale of an argument, if argument arises.

If you're explaining, you're losing.

The masses are absolutely being manipulated by those in power.

Even with a round table, some people always seem able to sit at the head of it.

Leaders do not sway with the polls. Instead, they sway the polls through their own words and actions.

Now I see that going out into the testing ground of men it is the tongue and not the deed that wins the day.

Humans cannot avoid trying to influence others. Everything we say or do is examined and interpreted by others for clues as to our intentions.

I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

I reckon you have to put a presence in front of your opponent - a bit of confidence and attitude - and then you can change what their next move may be.

Politics and strategy are one.

Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn't bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and said: "Wouldn't you like to have that?" Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?

To someone seeking power, the poorest man is the most useful.

He who frames the question wins the debate.

To attract people, to win over people to that which I have realized as being true, that is called propaganda.

Propaganda has a bad name, but its root meaning is simply to disseminate through a medium, and all writing therefore is propaganda for something. It's a seeding of the self in the consciousness of others.

I always think if you are asking somebody for something it is a good idea to give them something first.

Every couple of years when your book comes out then you have to go into these fights with the publisher and the publicist and then maybe I bring sort of my knowledge of power into play.